BULAWAYO – A 71-year-old grandfather who was talked out of committing suicide by hanging himself from the roof trusses of his bedroom died after accidentally falling off a tree, police said.
Sianganda Mudenda of Zungwane 11 Village in Lusulu, Binga, slipped as his old bones failed to carry him up the tree, leading to his death, Chief Inspector Siphiwe Makonese of Matabeleland North Police told The Chronicle.
Makonese said the suicidal Mudenda first attempted to hang himself from the roof of his house, but his 16-year-old niece found him in the act and talked him out of it.
The two were alone in the absence of Mudenda’s wife, 66-year-old Noloa Mudenda.
Police said Mudenda gave his niece the slip, and she walked outside to find him climbing a tree near their homestead, apparently intent on hooking a rope to a branch and hanging himself from it.
Mudenda would not go out as he had planned it, though, after slipping to a painful death.
