Richard Appiah
Richard Appiah, a footballer who killed two boys and kept their body parts in a refrigerator at Alaska, a suburb of Abesim near Sunyani in the Bono Region, has been committed by a Kaneshie Magistrate Court to stand at the High Court.
The accused, who has been charged with two counts of murder, would make his first appearance before the High Court on August 16, 2023, where his plea would be taken for the first time since the gruesome killings and his subsequent arrest in 2021.
The Attorney General recommended that the accused be charged with the murder of the minors after he was passed fit to stand trial, having undergone medical treatment after a mental episode.
Nana Ama Adinkra, a State Attorney, in presenting preliminary evidence, told the court that the prosecution would be calling six witnesses in a bid to establish the guilt of the accused person.
She tendered the autopsy reports of the two victims, their photographs, partially burnt clothes, slippers of the minors and some other exhibits the prosecution intends to rely on at trial.
The accused, on the other hand, indicated through his counsel, Theophilus Dzimega, that he would be calling two witnesses in the trial.
Gruesome Murder
Richard Appiah, was a friend to the victims who have been identified as 15-year-old Stephen Boateng who was in JHS 2 and the suspect’s own 12-year-old step-brother Louis Agyemang.
He is believed to have been cooking for the victims and showing them some affection, and through that supposed kindness, he was able to lure them and subsequently kill them in turns.
The Abesim ‘cannibal’ is said to be a man who hardly smiles, and per police records, four persons are said to have gone missing in the neighbourhood where he lives.
This led to a heightened suspicion that he could be behind the strange disappearances.
He is said to have initially denied knowledge of the whereabouts of Louis Agyemang, the boy who went missing.
It was a man who lives in the neighbourhood who insisted that the suspect knew the whereabouts of Louis because he had seen the suspect and the victim together on the day the victim went missing.
It was alleged that, Appiah after the dastardly act, brought out his clothing and set it on fire, probably to delete any evidence of the crime.
Discovered Intestines
The police discovered the intestines of the victims buried on a cocoa farm.
A police statement indicated that, “The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters team investigating the Abesim murder case has yesterday, Tuesday, August 24, 2021, discovered a place where suspect Richard Appiah buried the intestines of one of the murder victims.”
The statement, signed by ACP Kwesi Ofori, acting Director-General, Public Affairs, explained further how the police also found a sharp cutlass used in the murder, as well as where the body parts were buried.
“The intestines were buried on a cocoa farm at Abesim, which the police have since exhumed for pathological analysis and forensic examination in Accra,” the statement pointed out.
The investigation team has also worked around a septic tank and other places of concern for further examinations, the statement said.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak