WOMAN KILLED AFTER ‘JUMPING IN FRONT OF TAXI’

A 28-year-old woman on Thursday evening died on the spot when she reportedly jumped in front of a vehicle on the Western bypass. The deceased was identified as Emilie Swartbooi.

The accident happened between 20:00 and 21:00 at the end of the road towards the last bridge that leads to Okahandja.

Swartbooi was unemployed and the mother of two children – a seven-year-old boy and five-month-old baby girl. According to friends who were at the accident scene, Swartbooi threatened to take her life all day on Thursday. It is reported that she also had her baby with her alongside the road before she was killed but this could not be confirmed and the baby is currently in the care of her grandmother.

“I just heard from people who were at the accident scene that Emily passed away. I am hurt because she was like my own daughter,” said Fransina Khoeses, 45, who raised Swartbooi since she was 19-years-old. Khoeses, from Hakahana, added that Swartbooi was three months pregnant.

Swaartbooi’s grandmother left her in Khoeses’s care when she moved from Hakahana.

Khoeses, however, said she does not know what caused Swartbooi to want to take her own life.

Last Sunday Swartbooi took her clothes then told Khoeses she was going to visit her aunt in Khomasdal and will come back home on Friday. City Police Deputy Chief Gerry Shikesho said there is conflicting information as to what Swartbooi was doing on the spot alone at that time. Most people, however, say she went there to commit suicide.

Shikesho said he is aware that Swartbooi told people that she wanted to kill herself but he cannot deny or confirm anything as yet. “In the end people want to believe she committed suicide,” he said.

“If she was threatening to commit suicide, why didn’t these people who claim to know her report it to the Police so that she could have been assisted by talking to a counsellor?” asked Shikesho.

Nampol Deputy Commissioner and Khomas Region Crime Investigation Coordinator Sylvanus Nghishidimbwa said a case of culpable homicide was opened against the taxi driver who hit Swartbooi. The driver has not been arrested as the case is under investigation.

click to enlarge KILLED: Emilie Swartbooi jumped to her death in front of this taxi © FEODORA VON FRANCOIS