When dead man tell tales…

…a story of a Mamina seven-year-old murder case being exposed

The old adage which says dead man tell no tales might be true but when a dead man tells something or haunts someone in sleep, then they do tell tales and indeed something will have gone wrong.

More often than not, there have been reported cases where the dead do strange things as a way of making something known. Others have used dreams maybe to tell where their bodies were buried in cases where they are not known. The list is endless.

Mamina Police are investigating a case of murder that occurred seven years ago but had been investigated as a sudden death. This comes after the deceased, through dreams, continuously haunted the only witness to the murder to reveal the ordeal.

This is the story.

The lifeless body of Musekiwa (not his real name) of Masiiwa Village from Chief Benhura in Mamina was found one June morning immersed in a pool along Mahabha River. In the eyes of the villagers who saw the body, the case looked like a genuine case of drowning but to others the question was how the deceased ended up at the river after having been seen leaving for home from a drinking binge. That was a puzzle to be solved.

Yes, Musekiwa had not drowned in Mahabha River but it was a cover-up act by the suspects who wanted it to appear so.

The case was however investigated as a sudden death by Mamina Police after failing to conduct a postmortem because of the state of decomposition of the body. These were the years when the illegal sanctions were gnawing into the existence of the ZRP to an extent that there was no fuel and operational vehicles at most police precincts.

The police had taken the body to Kadoma Hospital where there was no pathologist and were advised to take the body to Bulawayo for the postmortem. Musekiwa’s relatives found this cumbersome besides it was an expensive undertaking. They, though tongue-in-cheek, advised police that they would bury their dead and there was no need to proceed with the postmortem given that the body had reached an advanced state of decomposition.

But following an anonymous letter which was sent to police, the facts of the matter leading to Musekiwa’s death have emerged.

The writer of the anonymous letter, The Outpost understands, was not the witness himself, but a confidant of the witness – Nhamo (not his real name), whose mouth was put on silent by the accused persons who have since been arrested. So persistent was the writer that he delivered the same letter twice – first at Harare Central Police and the other was smuggled into ZRP Mamina Officer-In-Charge’s Office.

“We received the letter from Harare and about the same days I found almost the same letter in my trays. The writer actually wanted to make sure the information had reached the station and when he saw no action, he decided to write another letter,” said Officer-In-Charge Mamina Inspector Roy Muviyiwa.

The predicament which Nhamo was under is another case of a witness suffering the torture of living to know the truth but only prevented by fear of death to spit it out. The continuous dreams of the deceased somehow made him confide in his intimate friend. 

On the fateful day, Musekiwa had left his homestead going for a traditional beer-drinking binge in Nyatsambo Village. Later during the same day Musekiwa, probably from taking one too many, trudged back home and on his way, he learnt that there was another beer gathering at another homestead in Muzura Village and he decided to make a stopover at this homestead. That is where his killers were imbibing.

At around 1700hrs when he felt he had had enough, Musekiwa left for his home and the four suspects followed him at a distance.

When Musekiwa had reached a bushy area, the four accused persons then caught up with him and started assaulting him.

Musekiwa shouted for help and the witness – Nhamo (not his real name) – whom they had met before the attack heard the cries for help and rushed to the scene but when he arrived at the scene, Musekiwa was already giving his last kicks.

The murderers were realised at the spot by Nhamo and having seen that their heinous act was seen, they hatched a plan. They made Nhamo part of the offence by forcing him to carry and hide the corpse in the bush before they threw it in Mahabha River where Musekiwa’s body was later retrieved. They threatened him with death if he ever revealed the case to anyone.

The murderers must have made serious threats to Nhamo as even after the Investigating Officers questioned him, he flatly denied the facts but later cooperated with the cops and revealed the information.

The Outpost also understands that Musekiwa, who was a Kraal Head is said to have been in the know of a case of infidelity involving one of the accused persons with another woman in the village who was also married. The illicit relationship had given birth to children unbeknown to the husband. The fears of the accused persons were that Musekiwa was going to spill the beans to the Chief of the area and they would be charged heavily. So the only way to avoid this was to eliminate Musekiwa.

Though their plan had ‘succeeded’, their victim was to turn in his grave and expose them. They are currently in remand prison awaiting trial. Police Mamina is awaiting authority to exhume the body for post mortem.

It’s another tale of a seven-year concealed murder coming in the open. Indeed, the dead do tell tales.