‘He told me he would kill her’, sister of murdered wife says.
The man who allegedly killed the mother of his five children in Marau East Guadalcanal said he would kill her, her sister claims.
Lydia Iloa told SIBC News her sister, Madlyn Menoni, had been a victim of serious domestic violence in the years since she lived with her partner, Joseph Oai, who has been charged with her murder.
In a tearful interview, Mrs Iloa recounted the last incident in 2015 when her sister ran away from her partner for the third time to her house at Lungga, east Guadalcanal, seeking protection.
She said she tried to persuade her sister then to leave the man.
“(I said) I don’t want you to follow the man because every time I talk to you, you never listen to me,” she told SIBC.
“So if you don’t listen to me and you follow that man again, you are going to your death. Okay so the man said to me from behind, yes if your sister goes back with me she won’t come back to you.
“And what he said was very true, only the body came back to me.”
Mrs Iloa and her husband are looking after the five children her sister left behind including a six-month old baby.
Oai, who is accused of beating his wife to death with a mangrove stick, has been remanded in custody on the murder charge but is yet to plead.
Solomon Islands remains one of the worst countries in the world for domestic violence.
By Kikiva Tuni