A 22-year-old housemaid in Zimbabwe, Violet Moyo, has been arrested for murdering a 10-month-old baby, Ethan Phiri, when she wrapped him in a blanket, put him in a drawer, closed it, and went to watch Telemundo. Three hours later, Moyo went to check on the boy and found him dead.
Violet Moyo, 22, of Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park, who was pregnant when she allegedly committed the crime, She blamed her two-month old pregnancy for her action. She told the court that on that particular day she was feeling “moody” and was irritated by the toddler’s cries.
“During that time I was two-months pregnant such that on that particular day I was feeling moody and didn’t even want to see the baby. I tried to calm the baby but he continued crying and that worsened my condition such that I felt so irritated. The only thing that came to my mind was to muffle the baby through putting him in a drawer so that he could cry until he slept,” said Moyo.
“My intention wasn’t to kill the baby, but to get him to sleep, but sadly I got too preoccupied with the movie and forgot about the baby. I’m a rural girl who loves watching movies since where I grew up there was no television,” she said.
Moyo also told the court that the baby was disturbing her from doing other household chores.
“I wanted to do other duties and finish early so that I could travel to my rural home in Plumtree, but the baby kept disturbing me. I really want to apologise to the parents of the baby because it wasn’t my intention to kill him,” she said.