By Kondwani Magombo−Mana

A 25-year-old woman in Mangochi has committed suicide by drowning herself and three-week-old baby in Lake Malawi, Mangochi police confirmed on Monday.

The Police identified the woman as Brenda Francis and the incident occurred Sunday morning at Mwawa Fishing dock in the district.

According to Mangochi Police Station Deputy Public Relations Officer, Sub-Inspector Amina Daudi, the two were married recently and they had a daughter between them in November.

She said preliminary investigations have revealed that the two had family wrangles since the birth of the child and that on the evening of Saturday of the child when the woman went missing.

“On Saturday, the husband came home from his fishing errands and found his wife writing a letter,” Daudi said, adding that, “The husband quizzed her about the letter and Brenda told him that the letter was for the landlord.”

The wife sneaked out a few minutes later with the baby and, according to Police, the two never returned forcing the husband to search for them but in vain.

“Her body was found floating on the lake with the body of the baby strapped on the back,” Daudi said.

“Police officers who visited the scene and the home of the deceased found a suicide note indicating that she had committed suicide because of family matters and that she did not want her child to suffer when she passed on; hence, taking her along,” she added.

Daudi said postmortem conducted at Mangochi District Hospital established that both the mother and daughter died due to suffocation.

Both the deceased hailed from Makaka Village in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Ganya in Ntcheu.