Police in Lwebitakuli are on a manhunt for an unidentified man who raped and strangled to death a 7-year-old girl in Sembabule district.

This incident happened at Katoma village, near the Kabanswere market in Mawogola county, in Lwebitakuli sub-county.

Preliminary information indicates that the deceased was raped and strangled to death, and afterwards her body was dumped in one of the wells by an unknown paedophile. The body was later discovered by the locals.

According to the locals, the deceased, whose names were withheld, was playing with her fellow kids in her grandmother’s compound but disappeared without others noticing it.

’’She was playing with her colleagues in her grandmother’s compound, but when her grandmother came back home, she found her missing in the compound, and when the colleagues were asked, they said that they did not know where she had gone,’’ the locals revealed.

While being interviewed by journalists on May 22, 2024, the deceased’s grandfather, Kakuba Mwesigwa, said that his granddaughter was living with her grandmother, Joyce, who left her at her home on May 20, 2024, with the other four kids playing, but when she came back home, she realized she was not with her colleagues, and when she asked the kids, they said that they did not also know where she was.

Mwesigwa added that Joyce informed the locals, who immediately launched the search for her granddaughter in the nearby bushes, but she was not found, and the search was pushed to the next day, May 22, 2024, when she was later discovered dumped in a well.

’’The search for my granddaughter was resumed on May 22, 2024, in the morning by the locals, and they searched all nearby bushes and wells. However, as they were still searching, they found her shoes next to a veranda of one of the wells, and this prompted one local to go down the well, and her body was found underground in the water,’’ Mwesigwa revealed.

The police were called, and they came with a doctor who checked the body after it was retrieved from the well.

Upon inspection, the doctor revealed that the deceased was dumped into the well to kill evidence; however, she had been raped two days ago and afterwards strangled to death.

The police in Lwebitakuli said they are going to do everything possible to have the culprit booked because what the paedophile did was so disturbing, painful, and uncouth.