Woman tragically kills husband, 3 children and stabs herself, her family detains 2 journalists

A few days ago, a wife and mother of three, Rachel Adetsav killer her three children; Ngwuavese, Senater and Joshua before killing her husband, Nicholas Adetsav at Vandeikya Street, opposite NKST Church, both worked with the Makurdi Local Government Council, Benue State, Nigeria.

Benue State Police command reports that after the incident which happened around 8:30 pm on Friday, they dispatched personnel to their couple’s house and found the husband foaming in the mouth, the children all dead and the wife stabbed. They concluded that the wife killed her family.

Punch Metro reports that after she killed her family, the wife rushed outside to smash her husband car, then locked the door and stabbed herself in the chest. The husband, Nicholas has been described as someone who “cannot hurt a fly” by a family friend, Janet Iorpav who describes the wife, Rachel as a troublesome person who could anything to harm anyone who crossed her.

Janet says, “I knew Nick before he got married. He was a gentleman and a lovely person, but his life changed the moment he got married. No one dared court her trouble because there and then, she would tell the person that she would kill him or her.”

Residents and neighbours who liked around the couple also corroborated claims that Rachel was a troublesome woman who once stabbed a neighbor and the matter is still in court. Reports also say the couple had been fighting since Friday afternoon.

This is evident in how Rachel killed her family. Sandra Kaso, the couple’s neighbor reports say that Rachel must have hit her husband with a pestle on the head before slitting her children’s throats.

According to Kaso, “When we heard the sound, we came out and found the woman breaking the windscreen of their vehicle. She then went inside and locked the door. We tried to prevail on her to open the door but she refused.

“At a point, when the fight was becoming prolonged, we had to alert the caretaker of the house so that he could call the police but he said if we couldn’t settle the matter, we would be held responsible.

“By the time we called the police at about 9 pm, she had already killed every member of the family. The police had to break open the door to find all members of the family in a pool of blood.”

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In an interview with the News Agency 0f Nigeria on Saturday, November 3, 2018, Spokesman for Benue State Police Command, Mr. Moses Yamu said, “The man, Mr. Nicholas Adetsav, an employee of Makurdi Local Government Council, and his children were killed on Friday night in Makurdi.

“His wife, who we believe is responsible for the death of the four people, also killed herself. From the information available to us, the woman has been having issues with her husband, which might have culminated in this.”

“They have been having issues; just yesterday (Friday), the woman was seen with a pestle trying to smash her husband’s car. No one knows the cause of their frequent fights,” the PPRO said.

“The incident happened around 8.30pm on Friday. From what we have gathered, the couple fought on a daily basis.”

Chairman, Makurdi Local Government Council, Mrs. Akange Audu, confirmed that the couple was employees of the local government council who “were always fighting.” She adds that Rachel had warned neighbours to stay out of their fights.

Audu says, “The husband worked in the Department of Finance, while his wife worked with the Department of Agriculture."

One of their neighbours told Punch Metro that she tried intervening in the couple's fight once and was threatened by Rachel with a knife by the wife.

Aftermath

Upon the death of the couple, Wuzup Naija, reports that two unnamed reporters from The Sun and Punch Newspapers went to the husband’s family to gather reaction, only to be attacked by family members who blamed media for portraying their family in a bad light.

The reports claim one woman particularly attacked the reporters which ended up with the Sun reporter escaping through a window to a vigilante group, while the Punch reporter was detained and only released after the National Union of Local Government Employees intervened.