Scroll down to discover the full story. Whether it inspires, informs, or moves you, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Forty-seven-year-old nurse, Ejezie Udochukwu, opens up to IKENNA OBIANERI about the indescribable pain of losing his three children under mysterious and shocking circumstances in Nnewichi, Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State

Recently, reports went viral about the killing of your three children. How did it happen?

I am from Umuokanam Umucheke, Umueze-Uga in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. I am 47 years old and a nurse by profession. I reside in Edo State, while my wife and children live in Nnewi, Anambra State, but I visit them regularly.

On February 1, 2025, my wife went for an official assignment and left our children at home, as usual, because it was not a school day. She gave them instructions as she always did. However, when she returned at about 5 pm, she noticed that the doors were wide open, unlike before

Why was the door open?

She was expecting her children to greet and hug her, but she didn’t hear any voices or see any of them. She went to the kitchen to check if the food she had left for them had been eaten, but the food was still there. She began wondering where the children had gone.

My first daughter is an altar server, and every Saturday, she goes for rehearsals. My second daughter attends catechism for her first holy communion, and the youngest one, they can’t keep him at home, so he is usually taken along. But on that day, they didn’t go anywhere, and nobody knew where they were.

What happened thereafter?

At first, my wife didn’t suspect anything, as she came back from her assignment tired and needed to eat.

While she was eating, I called and asked if she had seen the children. She said ‘no’. I asked her how she could comfortably eat without knowing where our children were. She asked me to allow her to eat first, and I agreed. After eating, she went to the church that the children attended. I even told her that if she found them, she should discipline them, not knowing that my children had already been killed and stuffed inside the freezer.

How old were the children?

My first daughter, Chikaima, was nine years old; Chimdirim David, my son, was five; and Chimziterem Dominica, my second daughter, was eight years old. They were the only ones at home when the incident occurred.

How long have you lived in the compound?

We live in a two-room apartment behind the main building. There are two separate one-room apartments occupied by medical students, and we have been living in this compound for five years. We are the only family living there, along with two medical students.

What time did your wife start searching for the children before discovering their bodies in the freezer?

She started calling people whom she thought my children might have visited, though they were not the visiting type. Every person she called said they had not visited them.

My wife also asked their friends if they had seen them, but they all said no. The search, which began at about 5 pm, lasted until 8 pm, and still, the children were nowhere to be found. At that point, my wife became anxious, and it dawned on us that something was wrong. We assumed they had gone to visit someone and there was no adult to bring them back.

I told my wife that we should make an announcement. I went to my Facebook page to post their pictures, but when I tried to type a message, the pictures disappeared. Some of my Facebook friends, who had seen the pictures, mistakenly thought I was celebrating them. I called my wife and asked her to go to the church to make an announcement. When she arrived at the church, the reverend father was there, and he sent a priest to accompany her.

Was there no electricity?

There was no electricity, and even the fridge where the children were kept was not cold as there was no food inside. The medical student entered the house to help search for the children. A few minutes later, my wife, accompanied by the priest, was approaching the house.

When the medical student saw them, he went to my wife and asked, “Do your children usually play in any strange way?”

That question sounded negative to my wife. The priest noticed that the medical student was about to break some bad news to my wife, so he pushed him aside.

The medical student then narrated to the priest what he had seen inside the fridge. Before we knew it, people had started gathering in my apartment to see what had happened.

Where was your wife at this stage?

Someone held her back to prevent her from seeing what was inside the freezer, apparently to shield her from the shock. They wisely chose not to disclose the information to her immediately, though she kept noticing people entering and leaving the house.

At that point, she still didn’t understand what was happening.

Who broke the news to you and your wife?

After some time, the people, including the priest, calmly told her what had happened. I was in Edo State, managing the situation over the phone.

I called my wife multiple times, but she didn’t answer. When she finally did, I asked her to hand the phone to the medical student because by then, I had started sensing something was terribly wrong.

The medical student asked me if I was alone because there are some things you don’t disclose when someone is by themselves. But I gathered my courage and asked him to tell me what had happened. That was when he broke the news to me.

After hearing the news, I hung up and immediately started calling my brothers, relatives, friends, and in-laws. I also informed my professional group in Edo State about the tragedy.

They were the ones who came to be with me so I wouldn’t be alone that night. The next day, I travelled to Anambra State.

In what positions were they found inside the freezer?

I didn’t see the picture myself, but I was told that they were found in sitting and bent positions, placed side by side. The freezer was not large enough to contain them because they were bigger than it. I guess that’s why their bodies had to be forced into it, based on what people told me. The freezer had not been used for some time due to a power outage. I will continue using the freezer because it wasn’t the freezer that killed my children, and it doesn’t make me feel bad to keep it.

No, there was never any time they played and tried to hide inside the freezer. There was no history of them climbing it, and there were no signs indicating that they had done so. If they had, there would have been a chair nearby to assist them, but there was no chair.

Those that found them in the freezer didn’t see any chair around it.

Were there injuries on their bodies?

According to the people who saw them, there were no visible injuries on their bodies, but they were bleeding from the nose. When I asked if any vaginal exams had been done to determine if any of them had been sexually assaulted, nobody answered me.