WITHOUT A TRACE
Woman goes clubbing never to return home Parents worry they may never see her alive
Parents of missing Onkgomoditse Keipheditse (21) of Mmadinare cannot help but worry that their daughter might be dead wherever she is. The mother, Olebile Keipheditse (39) says she last saw her daughter on the 26th May 2023.
“I had just returned from the farm and was not feeling so well. She cooked for me and said she would be going out to a nearby bar for entertainment. When she left, she was acting all weird. She was unusually kissing her siblings goodbye.
“I asked why she was kissing her siblings and she responded that she loved them dearly. I then told her that when she returns from her night of fun, she should come sleep in my room because I was not feeling well, to which she agreed,” the mother recounts, adding that the bar that her daughter was going to is not far from her home.
To the mother’s surprise, when she woke up the next day, her daughter was still not home. To this day, they do not know where Onkgomoditse is.
The family has been trying to search for her all over but in vain. They went to the bar where she was last seen and those who claim to have seen her have pointed to a certain man in Mmadinare. They say they last saw them together at a club in Mmadinare and not the bar situated near the family.
“I just wish the police manage to find my daughter, maybe that man will give back my child. I hear he was last seen with her around 0300hrs,” the worried mother said.
Onkgomoditse’s father Goitsemodimo Ramatebele (45) said he last saw her daughter more than a month back.
“I reside in Matladi ward, on the other side of the village. I bumped into her at the hospital weeks back, she was with her younger sister and I asked her what she was doing in Mmadinare because the last I heard, she was in Francistown. We talked briefly and went our separate ways,” Ramatebele said.
He added that he adores his daughter dearly.
“I have not been able to sleep, I keep thinking that she has been killed, how someone disappears without a trace like this boggles the mind,” he said.
He said it has never happened that Onkgomoditse disappears without telling anyone where she was going. He pleaded with all Batswana to assist in bringing his daughter home.
Selibe Phikwe Station Commander Nicholas Kadiatla confirmed investigating the matter, saying they have been following leads on the matter. They have interviewed people who were seen with Onkgomoditse that night.
“It is not just one person, she was seen with different people and we are following every lead that lands on our table,” Kadiatla assured.