6 metre thigh vendor python saga: Key witness vanishes

POLICE detectives investigating the weird  six-metre long python case in which a commercial sex worker was allegedly found in possession of the giant reptile at a lodge are struggling to locate the Sakubva man who allegedly exposed the crime.

Simbarashe Mupuradzuva (40) who resides in Maonde is the key witness to the case.

He is the one who claimed to have discovered the snake and subsequently reported the matter to the police.

The chief suspect, Queen Mpofu, and the owner of the lodge, Loice Samhere, have since been arrested over the case and have appeared in court for initial remand.

The two women are facing charges of contravening Section 45 as read with Section 128 of the Parks and Wildlife Act which prohibits the hunting, keeping or possession of specified animals.

A police source close to the investigations said cops were failing to locate Mupuradzuva.

“If this witness is not located and summoned to appear in court to testify, this case will crumble like a deck of cards. He is the one who discovered the snake and he is the one who reported the matter to the police. He is no longer reachable on his mobile phone and officers have tried to look for him at his house in Sakubva but to no avail. No one really knows why he has suddenly disappeared, “ said the source who requested anonymity.

After the incident which went viral on social media, Mupuradzuva came out in the open and gave a harrowing account of how he discovered the snake at the lodge in an interview with The Weekender.

Initially, detectives arrested Mpofu over the case but Samhere was later picked up and subsequently apprehended over the same issue after Mpofu confessed to the cops that she was the owner of the snake.

Mpofu is alleged to have told the cops that she was only keeping the snake for Samhere.

However, Mpofu is now denying the case, saying she was never found in possession of the reptile.