The ManicaPost
Sharon Chigeza Weekender Correspondent
HOMICIDE detectives in Mutare are battling to put pieces together and solve how a man who was initially believed to have been killed in a hit-and-run road accident ended up with some of his body parts missing.
The mysterious incident which happened in Zimunya on Monday has left villagers with their mouths ajar with many now pointing to ritual murder.
In a bid to conceal the heinous crime, perpetrators of the ritual murder dumped the body of the deceased man in the middle of the road along the Mutare-Masvingo highway.
They wanted it to be overrun by vehicles, conceal evidence and subsequently put traffic cops on a wild goose chase. Indeed some vehicles ran over the body.
Naturally, traffic police officers attended the scene, believing it was a genuine matter that falls under their purview, but they soon raised their homicide counterparts upon realising that they have been sold a dummy.
The corpse had some body parts missing around the private parts area and finger nails.
When The Weekender attended the scene, traffic police officers had moved the body of a man, who is yet to be identified to the roadside where they conducted further examinations.
The cops, who refused to talk to the Press citing protocol, quickly contacted the homicide section and advised them that they suspected murder.
From the crime scene investigations, the road traffic incident was a decoy.
Villagers quickly gathered at the scene and they told horror cases of ritual murders that have ravaged their community in recent months.
They said they were now living in constant fear while some were now escorting their children to school. Walking at night in the area is now considered dangerous.
An elderly villager who only identified herself as Gogo MaSibanda said the area was now a hunting ground for criminals.
She said most of the murders were being perpetrated in Chigodora and bodies were being dumped there to cloud police investigations.
“I suspect that this man was killed for ritual purposes. Whoever did it went on to dump him on the road so that the body would be run over and destroy evidence. The plan has evidently failed,” she said.
