Missing but found woman in Takoradi was not pregnant – Regional Minister

Josephine was reported missing by her husband, Michael Simmons, on Friday, September 17, after a search for her the previous day proved futile.

She reportedly left home Thursday dawn for a walk but never returned.

The complainant, her husband, told the police his mother-in-law later had a call from an unknown person demanding a ransom, fuelling rumours of another kidnapping case in the Western Region capital.

The police immediately began a frantic search for the pregnant woman.

Her brother-in-law told Takoradi-based Connect FM’s Paa Kwesi Simpson that the family received a call Tuesday morning that she had been spotted in Axim, and they followed up to find her alive.

The Regional Minister said medical reports available to the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) indicate that she was not pregnant.

“From the BNI’s preliminary investigations, they said this whole story was fake, and the medical doctor who took care of her said she wasn’t pregnant,” he told Kessben TV.

A carpenter, Kwesi Nana, who found her said his initial inclination was that she was mentally derailed when he first saw her Tuesday morning sitting in a garden at the premises of the Jehovah Witness church at Tolanu, a suburb of Axim.

He said they only approached her after they saw her shedding tears.

He said the woman used sign language to request a piece of paper and pen on which she wrote the contact of her pastor and requested he is called.

Meanwhile, authorities at the Axim Government Hospital have confirmed that the victim, Josephine Panyin Mensah, is responding to treatment.