A 37-year-old farmer who could not bear the pain of losing his lover to another man is alleged to have tied the hands and legs of the woman and slit her throat with a machete at a village in the Eastern Region. A few weeks before the gruesome murder, the deceased, whose name was only given as Joyce, aged 35, had separated from the boyfriend and befriended another man at the same village, Kofi Nimo, near Akyem Ayirebi in the Akyemmansa District. To avoid being arrested after the murder, the suspect, Kwesi Antsie, alias Kwesi Pamfo, also ended his life by hanging himself in the bush. According to the Oda Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Ben Atadana, Joyce, a seller of fried fish at Kofi Nimo, who had broken her relationship with Antsie went to Mmorekrom, a nearby village, to sell her fish on July 6, this year and returned home around 12 midnight. He said as she was very hungry, she decided to go to village centre to buy food to eat. Mr Atadana stated that because it was late in the night, Joyce could not find food of her choice so she settled on a loaf of bread. He said Antsie, who was watching Joyce's movements, laid ambush at an obscure place near her house, adding that no sooner had the woman reached the place than he pushed her down and tied both hands and feet together, despite her screams. The divisional commander said within a matter of minutes Antsie had removed a sharp machete he had hidden on him and slit her throat. He said by the time Joyce's screams attracted the attention of the people in the vicinity, and before they could rescue her, she was dead and the killer was nowhere to be found. Mr Atadana stated that a co-tenant of Joyce's, Madam Gladys Korkor, accompanied by some sympathisers, lodged a complaint with the Ayirebi Police, who rushed to the scene and found Joyce dead in a pool of blood. He said when the police reached the village, Antsie had taken refuge in the bush. Mr Atadana stated that a combined team of the youth of Kofi Nimo and the police mounted an intensive search for him and found him hanging dead in a cocoa farm the following day. The police commander stated that even though the police had intensified investigations into the matter, they had found it very difficult to get details of the matter as the two people who could assist in investigations were dead. Source: Daily Graphic