A photo of the siblings provided by the family.

Police are investigating what has been described as the most gruesome murder of three little children in Juba on Saturday, August 1, 2020.

The siblings are said to have been killed in cold blood at 4:30 PM in Rock city residential area. They were reportedly slaughtered by an unidentified person.

The heinous act in an urban set up has angered South Sudanese world over.

The children have been identified as 9-year-old Naomi Edward, 7-year-old Blessing Edward and Nor Edward who was 4 at the time of death.

Police and community members say the children were murdered in the absence of their parents.

The mother, Gilda Gideon, had reportedly gone to the market and left the children watching television on that fateful day.

Investigators found traces of blood on the floor of the sitting room.

Preliminary findings show that the children may have been butchered by a lone criminal.

“We received information that there is a case involving the slaughtering of 3 children at 4 PM at Rock City residential area, so we rushed there as a team of Criminal Investigators from the police headquarters. When we entered the house we got traces of blood on the flood. It seems like those kids were watching TV. The firstborn, a girl of 9 years old was lying on the chair and the small one was seated on the floor, while the other one of 7 years was seated on another chair. The unknown person must have entered the house and locked the door, then begun with the older girl, then proceeded to slaughter the rest,” said a lead investigator, not authorized to speak on the matter, told Eye Radio this morning.

The killer has not been apprehended, but police say they have identified some suspects.

The investigator explained that this is one of the most heinous incidents he has ever come across.

“This is someone who wants to exert pain or revenge, it is not an act of someone who wants money or wants to kill the father or mother, but there is something he/she wants…probably to destroy the parents,” he said.

The incident caught the attention of security chiefs in Juba, including the Inspector General of Police, the Director of Criminal Investigations and the state police commissioner who visited the crime scene on Saturday and Sunday.

The father of the three children has been identified as Edward Andrew, a 40 years old lecturer at Upper Nile University.

The house in which the children were murdered is about 200 meters away from an outpost of the Joint Operations Unit in Rock City.