Renthia Kaimbi
The grave of Okahandja murder victim Roswinds Fabianu was vandalised after unidentified people allegedly burned a snake on her grave, leaving the family devastated and raising concerns over cemetery security.
The incident was discovered on 25 April 2026, exactly one year after the six-year-old was brutally raped and murdered near the Veddersdal cemetery in Okahandja.
Born on 18 September 2018, Ndina, as she was affectionately known, had left for school in April 2025 but never returned home.
On what would have been her seventh birthday on 18 September 2025, her mother unveiled her tombstone in a heartfelt effort to honour her daughter’s memory.
According to the family, that solemn tribute was desecrated when Ndina’s aunt went to clean the grave on the death anniversary in April 2026, intending only to sweep and lay flowers.
Instead, she found the tombstone visibly scorched. The security guard on duty reportedly told the aunt that unknown individuals had burned a snake right on top of the grave.
Speaking to the Windhoek Observer on Sunday, Fabianu’s mother, Helalia Nghipunya, expressed her anguish.
“I don’t have words to describe it after everything that has already happened. If they were burning a snake, how did the fire also affect her tombstone? Some letters can’t be seen,” she stressed.
“Since when do people even burn snakes around graves, when you first have to kill it, carry it to another location, and perhaps only burn it? The fire didn’t even affect the grass around the grave, only the tombstone and the flowers on it.”
Nghipunya further expressed that she is exhausted by the ordeal and, while she has been mourning since her daughter’s death last April, she now finds herself weeping once more, uncertain of who to hold accountable.
She told the Windhoek Observer that Ndina deserved to rest in peace, and that the family equally deserves solace, while questioning why strangers have turned a child’s grave into a fire pit.
“We are all questioning who is responsible for safeguarding the cemetery,” she further stated.
Nghipunya also revealed that the investigation into her daughter’s murder has stalled.
“The family no longer hears from the police,” she said.
Police have reportedly questioned several persons of interest and collected DNA samples, but no arrests have been made to date.
Okahandja municipal spokesperson and public relations officer, Master Penna, told the Windhoek Observer on Monday that no formal complaint had been lodged with the municipality. However, he indicated that the council would investigate the matter.
“We will have to determine what really happened at our end. That is damage to property; therefore, the family must report the matter to the police to investigate further,” he said.
The brutal murder of Roswinds was not an isolated incident. Okahandja was gripped by fear following the deaths of three young girls in the space of just over a month in 2025.
The first victim was five-year-old Ingrid Maasdorp, who was raped and murdered on 20 March. Her body was discovered in a riverbed under a bridge, battered and bearing signs of sexual assault. She had been dropped off at school by her grandfather that morning but never returned home.
Just days later, Roswinds vanished after being dropped off at KW von Marees Combined School on a Thursday morning.
Her body was discovered the next day behind a gravesite at Veddersdal, allegedly with stab wounds. Both Ingrid and Roswinds were pupils at the same school, with their bodies found close to the premises.
The third victim, 15-year-old Beyonce Kharuxas, was found deceased on a Saturday at the Five Rand location.
According to police, she had gone out with friends to a bar the night before when two men offered to buy them drinks.
She allegedly left the establishment with a 40-year-old English-speaking man at around 01h00, and her body was discovered the next day in the bushes by a passerby. She was allegedly raped.
The murders sent shockwaves across the nation, prompting President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to visit the bereaved families at Nau-Aib and in Veddersdal, accompanied by education minister Sanet Steenkamp, her deputy Dino Ballotti, and several other high-ranking officials.
“Our presence here is to give you comfort, but more importantly, the Almighty is the one who knows what happens next,” Nandi-Ndaitwah told Roswinds’ grieving family at the time.
Maasdorp’s grandmother has since filed a N$2.2 million lawsuit against the Namibian government, mainly for failing to inform the family that there was no school on the day of the incident.
The investigation into all three murders continues.
