New details are emerging over the state of mental health of the prime suspect in connection with the gruesome murder of three persons at Abesim in the Sunyani East Municipality of the Bono region over the weekend.
Persons close to his family have told Angel News that the suspect absconded from the Mental Health Unit of the Bono Regional Hospital in Sunyani while on admission for a psychiatric condition.
It has already been reported widely about how 28-year-old draughtsman and surveyor, Richard Appiah was arrested on Friday after the bodies of two boys, a 12 and 15-year-old, and that of a yet to be identified person stored in a fridge were discovered in his apartment at the Alaska suburb of the Abesim township.
Upon the direction of the Acting Inspector General of Police Dr. George Akufo Dampare, the national officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) have taken up the matter for a thorough probe.
Another person has been arrested as an accomplice of the suspect but police say disclosing his identity would mar the investigations.
The bodies of the deceased are to be sent to the Police Hospital at Cantonments in Accra for a critical pathological examination; a clinical psychologist has been appointed to counsel the bereaved families while a 2-man liaison team has been instituted to coordinate communication between the Ghana Police Service and the bereaved families.
The two suspects would also be sent to the CID Headquarters to assist in the investigations; Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service told journalists that the IGP was the matter to be treated as a national issue.
Speaking in an interview with Sunyani-based Ark FM monitored by Mynewsgh.com this morning, the Chief of Abesim, Barima Kumi Akyeaw II confirmed that the suspect had at a point in time received treatment for a mental issue but fled from the hospital.
He said the victim’s father informed him of his unusual behaviour and how aggressive he had become and therefore advised him to take him to the psychiatric hospital
A personal friend of the suspect, Kwasi Kyei Baffour who spoke with Kumasi-based Angel FM in an interview monitored by Mynewsgh.com this morning indicated that Richard Appiah before committing the gory murder exhibited signs of mental imbalance in his conversations and general behaviour towards his friends.