Horror as FDH bank worker, 31, found dead in pool of blood in her own car — engine still running

A murder investigation has been launched in Dowa after a 31-year-old bank employee was found dead in a blood-soaked vehicle abandoned along the Dzaleka–Dowa Boma road, in a discovery that has left the local community reeling.

The victim, named as Tathokoza Salimu, was found last evening at Chinkhota Village, near Tatolonga Bridge — in circumstances so disturbing they’ve sent shockwaves rippling through the area.

Dowa Police Station spokesperson Alice Sitima said the alarm was first raised by passing road users, who spotted a car parked eerily along the roadside with its engine still running.

What they discovered inside was truly gruesome.

Police who rushed to the scene found a black Subaru Impreza with Salimu’s lifeless body slumped in the passenger seat, lying in a pool of her own blood. She had a visible wound to her neck.

The grim find immediately triggered a murder investigation, with police treating the circumstances surrounding her death as highly suspicious.

A search of the vehicle turned up several items that helped confirm the victim’s identity, including a driver’s licence, smartphone, and an FDH Bank teller identification card bearing her name. Salimu, it emerged, worked at FDH Bank’s branch inside the Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

Chillingly, police have so far refused to reveal how she sustained the fatal neck wound, whether anything was stolen from her, or whether any arrests have been made in connection with her killing.

Investigators are now racing to piece together her final movements — where she’d been, who she was travelling with, why the vehicle was abandoned at the roadside, and, crucially, what unfolded inside that car in the moments before her death.

With a killer, or killers, still at large, the disturbing case has left investigators facing serious questions — and a community demanding answers.