A mother of four yesterday described a harrowing night searching for her husband in bushes near their home and later next morning seeing him dead, with his neck broken.

Minutes before that, her daughter, Karalaini, 8, had gone in search of her father, Ratu Jone Nacikoniboti, and found him dead.

The most baffling thing Torika Tubarua, 27, found about the entire events was her husband did not have a scratch or cut on his body after being found 30 metres down a rocky fall near their home.

In what seemed like a chilling run of events, Ms Tubarua, of Nukuloa, in Ba was still trying to figure out how the tragedy happened on Monday.

The most frightening piece to the puzzle was the sound of someone being dragged through the burned undergrowth near her but could not see anything because of the ash dust that was stirred up.

Ratu Jone, 31, was a yaqona farmer and it seemed everything was going well as he was almost reaching the $10,000 sales mark for this harvest.

On Monday morning, he left for town with his seven-year-old son and namesake to sell more yaqona at the Ba Market.

“He arrived home about 10.30am with some shopping and beer and after a while started drinking with a cousin of his and my brother, Jope.”

She said after a while, things started to change.

“He called me and asked for forgiveness for any wrongdoings, hugged the children and told me we will part ways that night.

“Later he complained of a headache, slept for a while with a wet towel over his head but suddenly got up at around 6.30pm.”

She said things started to get bizarre after that when he started walking away from the house.

“I asked him where he was going and when I caught up to him he said he wanted to check the horses and wanted to buy some more beer.

“He told me to go home and he would be back but when I was at home for a while, I knew something was wrong and walked back down the hill to where I last saw him with my three year old son, Samuela.”

“Samu and I started calling his name after we found the towel he was carrying on the ground but no one answered.”

Suddenly, she said she heard this sudden movement on the burned undergrowth as if something was being dragged but could not see anything from the dust it had kicked up.

“I shone my torch everywhere after the dust had settled and called out but no one answered.”

She went back home and in the morning her daughter Karalaini decided to go and check, she found her dad, at the same spot where she was shining the torch.

“I told Police he did not fall as he would have been injured with the rocks.”

“He was lying in such a way that I could not see his head as it was buried in his chest.”

Police spokesperson Inspector Jokatama Qio said police were investigating and would comment further.

Edited by Mohammed Ali

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