Boy, 5, Found Dead In A Taxi Cab

A single-mother’s dream of seeing her son grown into adulthood, to look after her in old age, was last week Wednesday, shattered at Teshie Mobile, a suburb of Accra, as residents woke up to a shocking spectacle of the decomposing body of five-year old boy, who had gone missing for days.

The boy, whose name was given only as Israel, according to an eyewitness, went missing on March 12, and even though a search party was conducted, his whereabouts could not be traced.

Florence, Israel’s mother, had nowhere to sleep with his son.

She is a ‘chop bar’ attendant, who retires to bed in the ‘chop bar’, the name for traditional restaurants, with her son when daily sales are over each day.

After every attempt by residents to locate the boy had failed, two days after he got missing, Miss Joyce Ayorkor Adjei, an eyewitness who spoke to The Herald, said a mechanic later discovered the body of the boy in an abandoned Toyota taxi cab with registration number GT 7211 P. The car had been left in front of a fitting shop, close to where Israel lived with his mother.

According to Madam Joyce, they saw Israel lying down dead on the passenger seat in a prostrate position with the rectum protruding out.

He was in a red T-shirt with no under wear or a pair of shorts Israel had started decomposing, producing a very terrible smell in the area.

Despite the fact that the said taxi was located at a fitting shop where active vehicle repairs take place on a daily basis, residents say they never noticed the child had entered into the deserted vehicle or had heard him struggle for help.

The doors of the vehicle, this paper was told, were firmly locked when the poor boy’s body was discovered.

Israel’s mother, whose name was given only as Florence, a Krobo from Somanya in the Eastern Region, according to information, is a single parent who had come to the neighborhood to work as an attendant at a ‘chop bar’ called ‘Lom Nava’.

The boy at his age, this paper was told, did not attend school.

The Nungua Domestic Violence and Victim Support Units (DVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, have since deposited Israel’s body at the morgue, awaiting autopsy.

Madam Joyce described Israel as a very active boy who could have shouted to draw attention of himself that he was stuck in the car.

Asked if she suspected any foul play, she said that she could not tell since the post mortem report had not come out yet.

She, however, wondered why the boy could die in the midst of all the noise and the brisk businesses that go on in the area.

Florence was, however, not around for questioning. This reporter was told her family had come for her.