Joan Apio’s Mother Collapses in Court as Murder Trial Hears Graphic Evidence.

By Skika Reporter.

Proceedings at the Soroti High Court were briefly interrupted on Wednesday after the mother of the late Joan Faith Apio collapsed upon seeing graphic postmortem photographs presented during the ongoing murder trial of her daughter.

The emotional incident occurred as Detective Corporal Emmanuel Ekebu, 36, a Scene of Crime Officer attached to Soroti East Police Division, testified before Justice Boniface Wamala.

Ekebu presented still photographs taken during the postmortem examination alongside several exhibits recovered from the crime scene.

Court attendees watched as the grieving mother fainted and was assisted out of the courtroom by relatives and court officials before the hearing resumed.

During his testimony, Ekebu told the court that investigators recovered a number of exhibits believed to be significant to the prosecution’s case.

The court admitted the items into evidence, including a pair of size-three slippers, a five-litre jerrican with suspected blood stains, a short iron bar, a broken tricycle padlock made in China, and the postmortem photographs.

The officer also informed the court that the suspected murder weapon—a small green cutter knife—was recovered on February 20, 2025, during the police investigation.

The trial is expected to continue with testimony from at least three additional prosecution witnesses, who will be cross-examined as the hearing progresses.

Joan Faith Apio, a Primary One pupil at Jozan Nursery and Primary School, was allegedly murdered on February 5, 2025.

Her body was discovered later that evening in a pit latrine at the school in Soroti City’s Eastern Division, a case that drew widespread public attention across Uganda.

Eight suspects remain on remand over the murder. They include the school’s head teacher, James Edoket; director Joseph Okedi; co-director Susan Vivian Ariokot; matron Usula Adongo; cook Valentine Opio; police officer John Bosco Obotol, who is also Okedi’s brother; and two minors.

The court adjourned after the lunch break, with the hearing set to continue as the prosecution presents more witnesses in its efforts to establish the circumstances surrounding the killing.