Community residents in an Accra, Ghana suburb have been left stunned after an unforeseeable turn of events have left a 35-year-old woman dead and two suspects charged with murder.
Princess Afia Ahenkan, 35, had just hired a maid named Allister John to care for her home just days before he murdered her, locked her corpse in a garage and fled the scene with some of her household items in tow. The incident took place on Sept. 11.
According to a report in The Graphic, John was accompanied by James Anokye when the murder took place in Ghana’s Ashanti Region. Days after the murder, both John and Anokye were apprehended and taken into custody.
Police say the suspect was hired through a recruitment agency. The victim had returned home after dropping her 12-year-old son at school when the murder took place. John was only on the job for one week.
Community members believe the suspect killed Ahenkan shortly before noon.
According to the report, the victim’s husband, who lives in England, grew worried after his repeated attempts to contact his wife were left unanswered.
“The husband reportedly told the neighbor who shares a common fence wall to check on the wife with the explanation that he was trying to reach her since morning and had not been successful,” the report reads. “The neighbor then went to the house to check what was happening and it was at that point that blood was detected on the floor.”
When police arrived at the scene, they found Ahenkan’s body locked in the garage.
Following the murder, the Ghana Police Service issued the following statement:
POLICE ARREST TWO SUSPECTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE MURDER OF A 35-YEAR-OLD WOMAN AT APAASO NEAR SOKOBAN AMPABAME IN THE ASHANTI REGION
The Police, through a targeted intelligence-led operation on 14th September 2023, arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of a 35-year-old woman identified as Princess Afia Ahenkan at Apaaso near Sokoban Ampabame in the Ashanti Region.
The operation followed a Police report on the whereabouts of the deceased and the subsequent discovery of her body in the garage of her residence by the Police crime scene experts.
Further Police investigation led to the arrest of suspect Allister John, who was the househelp of the deceased, and his accomplice, James Anokye in Accra, who went into hiding with the deceased’s KIA Sportage private car with registration No. GS 307-21 which they subsequently sold.
The car has, however, been found at Adenta with its documents and subsequently impounded at the Oyibi Police Station for further investigation while efforts are underway to arrest the buyer to assist the investigation.
Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has since been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy.
