Woman found in well, four days after disappearance

It was a bad Easter celebration for residents of Isheri Road, in the Ijegun area of Lagos State after the corpse of a 41-year-old woman identified as Lola Adeyemi, was found in a well.

Adeyemi, who was married with two children, was said to have disappeared from the house four days earlier and had been declared missing.

However, her bloated remains were found on Sunday by a resident who quickly raised the alarm, drawing the attention of other people in the area.

Policemen from the Isheri division and officials of the Lagos State Fire Service were subsequently invited to the scene.

The corpse was thereafter recovered and deposited in a mortuary.

PUNCH Metro learnt that it took the combined efforts of firefighters from the Ikotun and Alausa stations to remove the body from the well.

The Director of the state fire service, Rasak Fadipe, said the victim was naked when she was removed from the well.

He said, “The woman had gone missing for four days and people had gone everywhere searching for her.

“But on Sunday, a resident found her bloated corpse in a well opposite their house and the person raised the alarm.

“Policemen from the Isheri division were alerted and they called us to the scene. We discovered that she was unclad, except for the pants she was wearing.”

Fadipe said it appeared like a case of suicide, adding that no one could, however, tell why she decided to take her life.

Horrified residents, friends and family members of the victim were said to have broken down in tears at the scene.

“She had four children, but two died. One of the children was at the well crying profusely while the body was being removed. She had actually asked her two kids to drop the laptop they were playing with and ordered them to go to bed before she went missing,” a witness, who declined to be named, added.

However, a police source said there were marks of violence on the corpse, adding that murder might not be ruled out.

 “The woman had cuts on her head and some bruises. It is not clear if she actually committed suicide. The husband was the one that reported the matter at the police station when she went missing. He told us that his wife just woke up beside him and he had not seen her since then. But I think an autopsy will reveal what actually killed her,” he said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said the case was under investigations, adding that the landlord and the victim’s husband were being interrogated.

She said, “The body was found in a well. The police are already interrogating the landlord and the husband. The woman’s corpse has been deposited in a morgue.”