How two brothers died while allegedly playing in their mum’s freezer

The deaths of the siblings have become a mystery to not only the residents in the area, but to the police also, who are still carrying out investigations to unravel the cause of their demise.

Some residents, however, believed that the death of the two brothers and primary school pupils, Olufemitan Olaitan, 9, and Oluwafifunmi Olaitan, 7, was suspicious. They argued that the freezer was not a giant size and that, with their ages, they should have been able to open the door of the freezer if it actually mistakenly closed on them

The deceased brothers, according to findings, had been locked inside the house by their mother, Olubunmi, who went to the market to buy foodstuff on Monday at about 3pm.

A family source said the mother, on getting back home, initially could not find the boys and she became worried.

She was said to have searched all the rooms and still could not find the boys only to raise the alarm which attracted neighbours and a search party was organised.

Nobody in the search party thought the boys could be inside the faulty deep freezer kept at a corner in the house.

It learnt that after it was discovered that the door was not tampered with when their mother returned from market, one of the neighbours reportedly opened the freezer only to discover the boys inside, dead.

The siblings were removed and taken to hospital with the hope that they could still be revived.

A police source said the boys may have been playing inside the freezer and its door shut against them and that, because of the weight of the door, the boys could not free themselves.

The source added that if their mother or anybody was at home, the cries of the deceased would have attracted her/him and they would have been saved.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the boys, after struggling to free themselves, may have died as a result of suffocation inside the freezer.

However, another police source alleged that the kids might have been murdered before they were dumped inside the freezer by their assailant.

The source said that the assailant may have dumped their lifeless bodies inside the freezer to give an impression that they suffocated after being trapped inside the fridge.

Also, he said that the freezer was a small one that could be easily opened by the boys if they were actually playing inside the freezer as suspected.

But the same source hinted that the door of the flat was intact when the mother of the deceased boys arrived from the market. However, he added that investigation into the death of the minors was still in progress and that all avenues would be explored to unravel the mystery behind their death.

The source said, “Anything can still come up during our investigation. Don’t be surprised if we come up with something fresh in the course of our investigation”.

He added that autopsy will bring to the open the cause of the death of the two brothers.

“All we have been told was that the boys were left alone in the house and that when their mother returned they were found inside a freezer that had not been working for over a year”, the source stated.

“How they got inside the freezer is unknown. We are only suspecting that they may be playing inside and the door of the freezer closed on them and in the process they were suffocated”.

It was gathered that when the boys were discovered inside the freezer, one of them had blood in his mouth while the other was alleged to have defecated on himself.

The parents reportedly buried the boys last Wednesday.

Contacted, Ondo State police spokesperson, Femi Joseph, said no arrest had been made as nobody was suspected to have murdered the boys.

Joseph said that the father of the boys, Olusegun Olaitan, reported the matter at a police station.

He described the death of the two minors as sad and unfortunate.

“There was no trace that the boys were killed and so far we have not made any arrest on the matter”, the spokesperson said.

“We did not suspect foul play because it appeared as if the kids were playing inside the deep freezer and the door locked on them when there was nobody at home to help them open the door. It is really a sad and unfortunate incident”.