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A 36-year-old mason, Samuel Kwadwo Dankwah, has allegedly killed two of his step-children, following a misunderstanding between him and his wife over housekeeping money. The suspect allegedly dumped the bodies of Evans Kwame Abban, seven, and Dorothy Maame Ama Abban, four, in the bush and absconded with his own child, Michael Owusu, two. Although the incident occurred on June 22, 2012, it was not until June 26 and June 29, 2012 that the bodies of Evans and Dorothy were retrieved from the bush at New Bortianor. Briefing the Daily Graphic on the incident, the Accra Regional Police Public Affairs Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Freeman Tettey, said the mother of the deceased children, Obaa Yaa, 30, who was co-habitating with Dankwah, allegedly left the children to visit her father after a misunderstanding over housekeeping money on June 20, 2012. Giving a background to the misunderstanding, Obaa Yaa told the Daily Graphic that Dankwah gave her GH�7 as housekeeping money for the day. She said she told him it was inadequate and demanded more, but Dankwah ignored her and left for work. She said upon his return that evening, Dankwah demanded dinner but she told him she could not prepare dinner because she and the children spent GH�4 on breakfast and lunch and, therefore, what was left was inadequate to prepare dinner. According to her, the next morning, she demanded housekeeping money when Dankwah was leaving for work but he assaulted her and asked her to use the remaining GH�3 to buy food items to prepare meals for the day. She said Dankwah then entered the room, brought out a machete and threatened to butcher her. She then ran out of the house and only returned after Dankwah had left for work. 1 According to Obaa Yaa, her father, Mr Kweku Abeku, coincidentally called her on her cell phone and demanded to see her urgently at Kaneshie for a discussion. She said when she met him, the father complained about Dankwah's failure to perform the marriage rites, after staying with her for four years. She claimed she then told her father about the misunderstanding over housekeeping money and the resultant fisticuffs between her and her partner. Apparently worried about the development, the father asked her to follow him to Bawjiase, where he lived, and promised to invite Dankwah over for the issue to be discussed. According to her, after staying for some few days, she decided to go back to check on the children, only to be told that their bodies had been sent to the mortuary. Throwing more light on the incident, DSP Tettey said Obaa Yaa brought her three children, identified as Akwasi Eric, nine, Evans and Dorothy, all from a previous relationship, to live with Dankwah. Obaa Yaa and Dankwah later had a fourth child, Michael Owusu. According to him, Obaa Yaa allegedly left the house with the reason that her father had invited her to come over for an urgent discussion. Mr Tettey said about 4 a.m. on June 22, 2012, when Eric woke up to attend the call of nature, he discovered that his sister, Dorothy, was not in bed and suspected that she might have gone to sleep with their step father (Dankwah). He said when he (Eric) woke up to sweep the compound about 6:30 a.m., he detected that Evans too was not on the bed, although Michael was still lying in bed. Mr Tettey said when Eric asked his stepfather about the whereabouts of Evans and Dorothy, the father claimed that the two children had gone to visit their grandmother who lived at another suburb of New Bortianor. He said Eric, however, decided to visit the grandmother after sweeping to confirm if his siblings were there. Unfortunately, he said, the grandmother denied that the children had been there. Based upon that, Eric and the grandmother decided to go and question Dankwah about the whereabouts of the two children. Mr Tettey said when Eric and the grandmother got to the house, Dankwah and Michael were nowhere to be found. According to him, a farmer saw Evan's body strangulated with a shirt in the bush on June 26 and immediately raised an alarm. He said the police were duly notified and the body was taken to the Police Hospital mortuary. Mr Tettey said Dorothy's decomposed body was also discovered in the bush on June 29, 2012 and was also taken to the morgue.