By: Audrey Raymonda John
Manager at Virtues Funeral Home, Kingtom, Princess Wilson, last Friday testified in the murder trial of Abdul Kpaka, who was alleged of killing his girlfriend, Sia Fatu Kamara.
She told the presiding judge, Alhaji Momoh Jah Stevens, that some of her duties as a manager include receiving dead bodies, examining them to determine whether they had valuable items like watches and hearings, preserving them, and later taking photos of them for future reference.
She unwrapped them inside the chapel before taking them to the preservation room.
Wilson said she recognized Kpaka in respect of the matter on the day he went to her funeral home, and she recalled on August 13th, 2024, around 2:30 pm when she received a call for her to collect Sia’s body.
She stated that after receiving the call, she called his driver, Prince, and Ansumana for them to go and collect the body at Goderich, adding that around 4 pm on the same day, Ansumana, family members of Sia, and the accused arrived at the funeral home.
Upon their arrival at the funeral home, they took Sia’s body inside the chapel. She welcomed the family members, and they told her to wait because they were not satisfied with the body. She went on to unwrap the body that was wrapped with a white blanket to examine her, but she did not find anything on Sia’s body, so she took photos of her.
“When I uncovered Sia’s body in front of Kpaka and Sia’s brothers, I found out that she had a scratch on her body, her upper lip was cut, and her right leg had a scratch, after which they started crying. I later saw Kpaka crying, going round the body, and I asked him if Sia was her sister, but he said no, her girlfriend,” she explained.
She continued that when she wanted to take the body inside the preservation room, one of Sia’s brothers, Sylvester, asked her to wait as they wanted to have a meeting. After some time, he asked her to go ahead with her work.
On the 15th of August 2024, Sylvester called and informed her that they would need Sia’s body for autopsy at the Connaught Hospital, adding that on the 16th of August, Sylvester collected Sia’s body. The body was taken to the hospital by her driver, Ansumana, but before leaving, she handed over the body to Sylvester.
She stated that after an hour, they later returned with the body to the funeral home, adding that she later took photos of Sia’s body with her office iPad, which was produced and tendered in court.
But before the iPad was tendered in court, led defense lawyer Emmanuel Teddy Koroma objected to the tendering of the iPad because the prosecution did not produce the photos to them when serving them the witness statement, which he described as trial by harm bush.
In his response, state prosecutor Yusifu Isaac Sesay said they cannot give the iPad to the defense team and rely on the judge’s previous rule, staying that the defense should not object to a document that was in the witness’s position and that they are following due process as the witness was the author of the iPad.
Judge Steven ruled that there was a ruling in that similar fashion, and he overruled the defense counsel’s objection.
During cross-examination by led defense counsel Emmanuel Teddy Koroma, the witness confirmed that she has been the manager of Virtues Funeral Home for 3 years. She told the court that she did not have any professional experience as a manager at Virtues Funeral Home.
She said when Sia’s body was taken to her, no document from the Emergency hospital was shown to her by Sia’s family, adding that as part of her duties, she provided a form to deceased family members to fill out. Still, she did not mention it to the police and the court.
After the defense counsel’s cross-examination, Justice Steven adjourned the matter to Friday, October 25th, 2024, for a further hearing.
