Cape Town – Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) has opened an inquest docket following the death of the 32-year-old woman who was arrested for the brutal murder of her four children.
The Eastern Cape woman allegedly murdered her children between the ages of two and 11 at their Mhlabubomvu home in Engcobo.
Nomboleko Simayile and her four children were sleeping in their Rondavel hut when the bodies of the four deceased children were found.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the children were assaulted by their mother with a sledgehammer and suffered severe injuries to their upper bodies.
Simayile died in police custody on Sunday, TimesLIVE reported.
ALSO READ | Police investigate four murders after mother allegedly kills her own children with a sledgehammer
“While she was in police custody on Sunday afternoon she reported to police she was not feeling well, but did not say what the nature of the sickness was. She was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention, where she died. The cause of death is yet to be established,” the report quoted police spokesperson, Captain Siphokazi Mawisa as saying.
City Press reported that Simayile confessed to the murders to her father and was arrested soon after.
She allegedly told her father that she wanted her children dead before she could die, the report said.
The report said the four children were buried in a mass funeral on Friday.
She was due to return to the Engcobo magistrate’s court next week.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/ @Savage_Cadre
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
