Adam (murder victim)

"Adam" was the name police gave to an unidentified young boy whose torso was discovered in the River Thames, in London, United Kingdom on 21 September 2001. Investigators believe the boy was likely from southwestern Nigeria and that several days before his murder, he was trafficked to the United Kingdom for a muti ritual sacrifice.[1] No one had been charged with Adam's murder and his true identity remains unknown.[2]

Background

On 21 September 2001, the torso of a young boy was discovered in the River Thames, near Tower Bridge in central London. Dubbed "Adam" by police officers,[1] the unidentified remains belonged to a black male, around four to seven years old, who had been wearing orange girls' shorts.[3][4]

The post-mortem showed that Adam had been poisoned, his throat had been slit to drain the blood from his body[5] and his head and limbs had been expertly removed.[2][3] Further forensic testing examined his stomach contents and trace minerals in his bones[5] to establish that Adam had only been in the United Kingdom for a few days before he was murdered[6] and that he likely came from a region of southwestern Nigeria near Benin City[1] known as the birthplace of voodoo.[5] This evidence led investigators to suspect that Adam was trafficked to Britain specifically for a muti killing,[1][5] a ritual sacrifice performed by a witchdoctor that uses a child's body parts to make medicinal potions called "muti."[3]

Investigation

Unable to find a match for Adam in databases of missing children in Britain and Europe, investigators made requests to the public for assistance. However, the story initially only received moderate publicity due its proximity to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. In the UK, coverage and interest in the case increased over the next year and rewards were offered for information leading to the killers' conviction or to Adam's identification, but the story had not yet received much publicity in Nigeria.[3]

When the investigation had reached an impasse in 2002, London officials flew to Johannesburg, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela, Nobel Prize winner and former president of South Africa, made a public appeal requesting any information that might be relevant to help the police in London identify Adam.[3] Mandela's appeal was broadcast all over Africa and translated into tribal languages, including Yoruba, the local language in the region that investigators linked to Adam.[1][3]

In 2003, London Metropolitan police traveled to Nigeria and launched a campaign to track Adam's parents. Despite visiting elementary schools and looking at reported missing children in the region, there was no success.[4]

Developments

On 29 March 2011, it was reported that the torso belonged to that of a 6-year-old named Ikpomwosa, after a television crew managed to track down a woman who used to care for him in Germany, due to his parents being deported back to Nigeria. Joyce Osiagede, a mother of two, had told ITV London Tonight that she handed the 6-year-old to a man—reportedly named Bawa—who proceeded to take the child to London. Detectives have said that this is a "major breakthrough".[6]

In February 2013, the BBC was contacted by Osiagede, who declared that she was prepared to tell them everything she knew about the boy. Osiagede revealed that the Adam's real name was in fact Patrick Erhabor and not Ikpomwosa. She also identified Bawa as Kingsley Ojo and said that she had wrongly identified a photograph that had been circulating in the press as Patrick when it was in fact of a friend's living son.[2]

Metropolitan police believe the publicity surrounding the case has acted as a deterrent for further ritual crimes in the United Kingdom.[4]

Linked cases

In July 2002, a Nigerian woman arrived in the United Kingdom from Germany, claiming to have fled from a Yoruba cult that practiced ritual murders. She claimed that they attempted to kill her son, and that she knew Adam was murdered in London by his parents. However, police searching her flat found orange shorts with the same clothing label as those found on Adam.[4] In December 2002, she was deported back to Nigeria.

Surveillance of the woman's associates brought the police to another Nigerian, a man named Kingsley Ojo. Searching of Ojo's house found a series of ritual items, however none of the DNA on the items matched Adam's DNA.[4] In July 2004, Ojo was charged with child trafficking offences, and jailed for four years.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Torso murder inquiry moves to Nigeria", BBC News, 27 Feb 2003, retrieved 6 May 2016
  2. 1 2 3 Crawford, Angus (2013-02-07). "Torso case boy 'identified'". BBC News. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Butcher, Tim (19 Apr 2002), "Mandela's plea over torso boy", The Telegraph, Johannesburg, retrieved 6 May 2016
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Torso in the Thames (TV production). Channel 4 Television, UK. 2003.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Owen, James (10 Feb 2005), "London Witchcraft Murder Traced to Africa Child Trade", National Geographic, retrieved 6 May 2016
  6. 1 2 Allen, Felix (28 Mar 2011), "Thames torso kid ID'd after 10 years", The Sun, London, retrieved 6 May 2016
  7. ↑ Rosie Cowan (2004-07-27). "Jail for torso case people smuggler". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-02-13.

Further reading

External links

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