Kimberley - While the Kimberley police have confirmed the death of a one-year-old baby boy, who reportedly died from the cold following exposure to the elements, Electro Park residents have varying versions of what happened.
It is believed that the baby died in the early hours of Saturday morning.
According to the man who found the dead baby, he (the man) had gone into a neighbour’s yard to sleep in one of the abandoned cars on the property.
“When I got there I saw a man and woman having sexual intercourse in the vehicle, a brown Opel Ascona. I saw the child’s head while the rest of his body was under his mother’s buttocks,” the man said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
He said that he is scared of being victimised and attacked by community members for speaking out about the incident.
The man said he left the two in the vehicle and went back later. “When I looked into the car all I saw was the dead baby with his mouth open.”
He said he then ran to the woman’s yard where he had been sleeping earlier in the evening. “I shouted and screamed that she must come because the baby is dead.”
The woman said that she had heard the man calling but decided to ignore him. “It was cold and I wasn’t feeling well,” she said on Wednesday.
The woman said that the next thing she knew, there were a whole lot of police cars and a pathology van outside.
Another resident added, before she was instructed by community members not to speak to the media, that the man who had been seen inside the abandoned vehicle had later confirmed that he and a woman were having sex in the car.
Neighbours in the yard then started screaming and shouting at the woman not to say another word. “If you speak you will find yourself in court. There is nothing to tell,” they said angrily.
The media was also threatened by community members.
The police on Wednesday confirmed the death of the one-year-old baby boy. Police spokesperson Captain Tessa Jansen said that an autopsy report confirmed that the baby had died of natural causes.