Akyempim, Central Region, Ghana – A domestic incident, suspected to be an act of arson and murder orchestrated by a husband and father, has resulted in the tragic deaths of a mother and her six children at Akyempim in the Upper Denkyira East municipality of the Central Region. The suspect was later found dead, having reportedly taken his own life.
The horrifying incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, November 1, 2025. According to a statement issued by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the deceased included the mother, her eldest daughter, and five other children, whose ages ranged from just one year to 15 years old, bringing the total number of victims to seven.
Preliminary investigations conducted by the GNFS strongly suggest that the husband of the deceased woman deliberately ignited the fire in one of the bedrooms where his family was asleep. The suspect is believed to have then locked the door from the outside before fleeing the scene.
The Central Regional Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, DO II Abdul Wasiu Hudu, confirmed that the Dunkwa-On-Offin fire station received a distress call at 1:04 a.m. on Saturday. Firefighters arrived at the scene, a four-bedroom house numbered AA/5259/7534, at 1:20 a.m. They found one of the bedrooms fully engulfed in flames and confirmed it was padlocked from the exterior.
Despite the rapid response, the seven occupants trapped inside could not be rescued. The fire crew managed to contain the blaze by 1:32 a.m., preventing its spread to the other rooms of the house. DO II Hudu described the incident as “deeply tragic.”
In a further devastating development, the suspect was later located deceased in a nearby bush. Police discovered his body hanging from a tree, suggesting he took his own life after the alleged attack on his family.
The charred bodies of the victims were subsequently handed over to the police at Atekyim for further investigation to determine the full circumstances surrounding the deaths.
