
A Forensic Pathologist at the Zambia Police Service has told the Lusaka High Court that he does not know what caused the death of George Kalaba, a man whose skeletal remains were allegedly kept by his family in Lusaka’s Garden Chilulu area.
This is in a matter where Sylvia Mutuba pleaded not guilty to the charge of manslaughter in connection with the death of her husband, George Kalaba, who was found in a skeletal state in January 2025 on his bed.
When the matter came up before Judge Annie Nononuju, Dr. Victor Telendy, a 48-year-old pathologist, has told the Lusaka High Court that he is unfortunately not able to give a conclusion about the cause of death because the soft tissues and internal organs were not present due to decomposition.
The court heard that this conclusion came after Dr. Telendy conducted a postmortem examination on 15th January 2025 of the decomposed skeletal body of 51-year-old George Kalaba.
According to the witness’s testimony, in his 27 years of practice, 13 years in Ukraine and 14 years in Zambia, he has never encountered such a case.
Dr. Telendy says he had read that in some traditions or cultures in Malaysia and Taiwan, a relative could keep a body for a long time in the house, but he had never personally encountered such a situation.
He has testified that in this case he could tell it was the skeleton of a human male aged between 30 and 60 years.
Dr. Telendy has explained that the bones of the skeleton were intact, stating that this meant there were no marks or evidence of injuries on the bones.
He says he could not exclude, for example, disease or homicide, stating that he did not know why the person died.
When asked if there was any evidence before court that he conducted theexamination, the witness referred to the postmortem report.
Picture for illustrative purposes.
By Best Jere