A 24-year-old man from Chimanimani left court officials at the Mutare High Court in a state of disbelief after he gave a chilling account of how he struck a fellow villager with a machete, harvested several body parts, which he then placed in a bag and later asked his brother-in-law to refrigerate.
The suspect planned the callous murder because he wanted to sell the body parts to South Africa based sangomas and then buy a house and a car from the proceeds.
His plan hit a brick wall after the brother-in-law refused to refrigerate the body parts and subsequently sold him out to the police.
Victor Dinga of Munaka Village under Chief Chikukwa appeared before Senior Judge Justice Hlekani Mwayera charged with murder as defined in Section 47 (i) (a) or (b) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23.
Ms Jane-Rose Matsikidze prosecuted.
“The deceased Cephas Mubarenyana lived in a separate village and the accused stayed alone,” she said.
“On September 24 last year in the morning, the accused person approached the deceased at his home and asked him to help carry some planks from Martin Forests for a fee. Unknown to the deceased, the suspect had a machete hidden inside his pair of trousers.”
On arrival in Martin Forest, the accused suddenly pulled out the machete and struck the deceased on the neck and above the left ear, killing him instantly.
He then dragged the deceased’s body into a bush before proceeding to harvest certain body parts. He later took the body parts to Chikukwa Business Centre where he asked his brother-in-law, Aaron Mashava, to refrigerate them for him.
“Having refused to refrigerate the human body parts, the brother-in-law later mobilised other villagers leading to the recovery of the body parts and the arrest of the suspect. A post mortem examination concluded that the death was as a result of severe head injury,” said Ms Matsikidze.
Mashava told the court that he was inside his shop when the suspect approached him asking him to refrigerate the bag containing the body parts.
He became curious when the suspect told him that the bag should not be opened. On being asked about its contents, the suspect told him that it contained human body parts. Suspecting that the accused person had killed a person, Mashava informed his neighbour who in turn called the councillor and the trio then approached Constable Blessing Muroda.
They went to the suspect’s house where he led them to a disused toilet where the bag and its contents were hung.
The case continues on June 10 when the defence counsel Mrs Ngorima from the Legal Aid Directorate is expected to present her closing submissions.
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