After five days of desperate searching, six-year-old Marcus Tshabang’s body was found floating in the Tutume River on Tuesday afternoon.
The gruesome discovery was made by three young boys and their hunting dog at Chiripa lands, 10 kilometres west of the village.
In an interview with The Voice on Wednesday morning, No.15 District Officer Commanding, Kabo Badirwang, said the three boys were walking along the river bank when their dog started barking wildly in the distance.
“They went to investigate, and that’s when they found a body floating in the water, and flies hovering around it,” said Badirwang.
He said the trio rushed back home to notify their grandfather, who immediately notified the police about his grandsons’ discovery.
“We rushed to the scene together with the missing boy’s uncle, who upon arrival identified him as his nephew,” Badirwang said.
The top cop said the young Tshabang was still wearing the same clothes he had on when he wandered off on Friday afternoon.
“We are yet to do a postmortem, we hope to do that tomorrow (Thursday) to determine the cause of death,” he said.
According to the police, Tshabang left his house on Friday afternoon to look for his 18-year-old sister who had left him playing with other kids.
“He was spotted by his aunt, who lives right next door. The aunt confirmed that when she asked the boy where he was going, he replied by saying he was going to look for his sister,” revealed Badirwang.
According to Badirwang, the little Tshabang was a well behaved boy, who never gave his parents and neighbours any problems.
However, at around 1830hrs in the evening, the family reported the boy missing, when they couldn’t find him anywhere.
The police, with the help of members of the community, Botswana Defence Force scuba divers, and tracking dogs, had been combing the Tutume River after the boy’s shoes were picked by the river bank.
Tutume and Nkange rivers have been flowing following heavy rainfall during the festive season and police have pleaded with parents to be on the lookout for their children as the river poses a serious danger to them.
Rest in peace my Boy