Hearts are brokenThere has been an outpouring of grief over the senseless killing of three-year-old Ava Owoses, allegedly at the hands of her mother. Community reels at the loss of little Ava 0 The death of Ava Owoses has left devastated families and loved ones as well as many unanswered questions. Ava, who was due to celebrate her third birthday yesterday, had her life cut short after her mother, Zenobia Seas,31, allegedly used a cloth to suffocate her on Monday.
It is alleged that she smothered the child in her car on the road to Terrace Bay, some 112km north of Henties Bay. Afterwards, she allegedly contacted the child’s father and told him of her death. She then allegedly stacked firewood under her vehicle in a bid to commit suicide. She was found by the police before she could light a fire.
Zenobia’s father, Dirk Seas, told Namibian Sun yesterday that it was not the first time that Zenobia had attempted suicide.
He said she had tried to kill herself after Ava’s birth. She was apparently struggling to come to terms with the split from her boyfriend, Ava’s father.
‘Threats’
“Zenobia discovered that the father of her child was involved in a relationship with another woman after Ava was born. “She could not handle this and left him. Ever since then, the couple started threatening her and abusing her emotionally. We have provided evidence of this to the police,” Seas claimed.
According to Seas, things got worse when Zenobia discovered that her ex-boyfriend’s pregnant girlfriend had decided to have a caesarean section on the same day Ava was born.
“She became very quiet and we learned on Monday that something was not right. She could not handle the situation and therefore decided to put an end to everything,” he added.
Probe
Detective Chief Inspector Erastus Iikuyu said the information given by Seas was news to him and would have to be verified.
“This is news for me. I do not have a clue about it and cannot comment at this point in time. We are conducting the investigation in order to get to the bottom of the issue and to establish what drove her to commit such an action.”
Zenobia, who lives in Swakopmund, was arrested and charged with murder.
Petrus Derks, a police reservist and member of the Swakopmund Neighbourhood Watch, found Zenobia and her daughter in her car at a fishing spot called Blare. Footprints around the car indicated that the child was still alive when they reached the spot.
“Zenobia was asleep in the vehicle, which was stuck in the sand. I knocked on the window and she woke up. She wanted to know what I was doing. I told her I was there to pull the vehicle out of the sand. When she opened the door I discovered her lifeless daughter,” Derks said.