A special police investigative team deployed mainly from Accra and led by a sniffer dog has been identified as the heroes of the operation that led to the retrieval of the remains of three persons in Sekondi-Takoradi last Friday evening.
The operation at Kansaworodo, a suburb of the Sekondi-Takoradi twin-city, involved operatives of the Criminal Investigations Department from the Police Headquarters in Accra, with the Western Regional Police Commander as the sole local operative in the quiet exercise.
A highly placed source has revealed to the Daily Graphic that the exercise was inspired by a tip-off and the marksmanship of the sniffer dog as the team located a cesspit and discreetly emptied it to retrieve the bodies.
The cesspit was located in the house of Samuel Udoetuk-Wills, the prime suspect in the case of the three girls who had disappeared from the region in suspected separate kidnapping cases that hit the twin-city at different times of last year.
So smooth was the operation that by the time residents of the area got wind of it, the exercise had already been executed and the police had left with the retrieved remains in card boxes.
The operation, the source said, had been planned to be kept from the curious eyes of residents in order not to court unnecessary attention that could derail the process, saying the exercise was “emotional and shocking and could have been too much for people to bear”.
Mission to the house
It all began around 11 a.m. last Friday when the police picked intelligence about the possible whereabouts of the three girls.
Acting upon further intelligence as part of its investigation into the kidnapping cases, the police returned to the house of the prime suspect for the umpteenth time to confirm suspicions.
Upon reaching the house, the police found the location of the cesspit from the main house too curious and decided to probe it.
The pit was located close to the second exit point of the house, which is just about 70 metres from the entrance of Udoetuk-Wills’s room, which is also one of his favourite exit points.
The braided hair
The team got to the cesspit and screened the area and realised that the pit appeared to have been tampered with in the past – at least some months back.
Upon further investigations, it became clearer that the cesspit had not been tampered with recently.
“That further aroused our suspicion, and because the area was covered with overgrown weed, we asked for a machete and cleared the area to have better access to the cesspit, and once that was done, they opened it up and found the pit full to the brim and an army of giant worms greeting them,” the source narrated.
“Having opened the pit, we reached out for a long stick which happens to be a used baton with nails on it just to measure the depth of the pit. Interestingly, when the baton was pulled out, it came out with a bit of braided hair with human hair in it.
“The leader of the team then placed a call to the command and communicated the discovery, and requested for the cesspit emptier from the Ghana Prisons Service. He also requested that the convict (who is currently serving jail term in the Sekondi Prisons for escaping from lawful custody) should be brought to the scene.”
Human skulls
The source said halfway through the process of emptying the tank, they saw human skull emerging from the bottom of the pit, and they continued until the pit was empty.
It said at the bottom of the pit, two other human skulls and the other skeletons of human parts were found, brought out and carefully placed in boxes and then dispatched to Accra for forensic autopsy and DNA tests to help identify the bodies.
Once the discovery was made, the area was declared a crime scene and immediately cordoned off to prevent public intrusion.
Udoetuk-Willis
The suspect, Udoetuk-Willis, was made to observe the entire operation and when he was asked if he knew anything about what the police had discovered, he denied any knowledge or involvement.
At about 6.25 p.m. on December 30, 2018 when Udoetuk-Willis was in Police Cells in Takoradi, he managed to escape through one of the ventilation windows of the cells.
He was, however, recaptured on January 3, 2019 at Kansaworodo in an uncompleted building.
A search conducted around the building where he was recaptured revealed the dress, the headgear and the rubber slippers the third victim wore before she was kidnapped.
This clue gave the police a strong belief that Udoetuk-Willis was connected to the crime, for which he has since been charged and is facing trial for kidnapping.
He is already serving a 36-month jail term for escaping from lawful custody, for causing unlawful damage to the police cells and for resisting arrest.
He has pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
Daily Graphic’s visit
As early as 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, hours after the police operation, residents gathered around the scene still in apparent shock over the unfolding issue when the Daily Graphic made the about 15-kilometre journey to the area.
The Daily Graphic’s own investigation proved that the cesspit was, indeed, connected to the sewerage system of the house as established by the flushed water closets from the house.
