A District Court at Kotobabi in Accra has discharged Frederick Owusu, herbalist, who was held over his wife’s death.

The court discharged Owusu, 54, after the Attorney General’s Office advised the police to withdraw the charge of murder preferred against him.

The Attorney General’s Office had recommended that there was “no sufficient evidence to support the charge of murder,” hence the police withdrew the charge.

The accused was held for intentionally causing the death of his wife on September 22, 2023, at about 15 hours at Hobor, near Ashalaja in the Greater Accra Region.

His plea was not taken.

Owusu, who has been in custody for over a year, was discharged by the court based on the advice.

On February 3, 2025, Chief Inspector Apewa Achana, who held the brief of Chief Inspector Margaret Boadi, told the court that the police had received advice on the docket on December 12, 2024.

The police filed the advice on February 3, 2025, at the court.

The prosecution said the deceased, Doris Owusu Asiamah, 49, was a hair stylist residing at Hobor. Owusu also resided within the same community.

Owusu and Doris were married and had been living together for the past 20 years.

The couple had protracted marital issues, which their families had tried to resolve without success.

On Friday, September 22, 2023, the accused reported to the police that his wife had committed suicide in the children’s room.

When the police visited the scene, the body of Dorcas was found hanging on the ceiling fan in the room.

Prosecution said the position of the body looked suspicious as if it had been “staged” and it was at the advanced stage of decomposition, indicating that she had died for “some time.”

When the police interviewed the accused, he said on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, at about 1700 hours, Dorcas returned from a funeral at Bawjiase in the Central Region.

He said the last time he saw Dorcas was the following day – Wednesday, September 20, 2023 – at about 1600 hours when he was travelling to Akyem Sekyere, his hometown.

The accused said he returned from Akyem Sekyere on Thursday around 2100-2200 hours and the next day, around 0300 hours, he found his wife dead.

Investigations, however, revealed that the accused had been in the same house with Dorcas from Tuesday through to Friday.

“There was no occasion that the accused travelled to Akyem Sekyere as he claimed,” the prosecution said.

On January 22, 2024, Owusu was arrested and during interrogation, he confessed that he did not travel to Akyem Sekyere as he claimed but rather went to town on Wednesday, September 20 and returned home. He had been around throughout the period.

“This turn of events confirmed the suspicion that the accused killed the deceased and staged the suicide.

"An autopsy was performed on the body of the deceased by Dr Owusu Afriyie, the Pathologist at the Police Pathology Department,” the prosecution said.