Two people are in custody at Lira Central Police Station following the mysterious death of a Swiss national.
Doris Tschan 58, who died on Monday, lived in Carasso, Switzerland before relocating to Lira in Uganda on December 23, 2011. In Lira, she opened an orphanage centre which later collapsed. She was staying at Kichope Village, Ojwina Division in Lira Municipality at the time of her death.
Police suspects that Tschan could have been poisoned.
Bernard Agwer, Lira district deputy head of criminal investigation department, told URN that they have in custody 36 year old James Odongo and his wife whose identity police declined to reveal. Odongo has reportedly been living with the deceased as her boyfriend.
Agwer says the deceased reportedly ate a piece of chicken on Sunday evening and subsequently started falling sick and died on Monday after being admitted at Lira Modern Clinic. At the clinic, however, she was diagnosed with malaria and she was treated a few hours before her death.
Tentatively, Agwer says Odongo and the wife have been charged with murder by poisoning under the CRB 1668/2012 pending a postmortem report which is being conducted from Mulago hospital in Kampala.
Odongo denied the claim of poisoning her lover, adding that she could have died of lung related illnesses since he has been advising her to stop smoking but she never listened to him.
Neighbours however told police that a week before Tschan’s death, Odongo could lock her inside the house and move to town.
They suspect that she fell sick several days ago before her death and never had medical treatment.
Pierre-Alain Eltschinger, spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, describes Tschan as a volunteer in Uganda. He is quoted by the media as saying that the Swiss Embassy in Nairobi and the Honorary Consulate in Kampala are in close contact with the Ugandan police to establish the cause of death.
Eltschinger is further quoted saying that the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs shall attend to the woman's relatives, following the directives of consular protection.
