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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
The $70 000 Old Mutual fraud saga has taken a new twist with one of the suspects confessing in court that the corpse used was not stolen as alleged by the police, but he assisted his colleagues to kill a drunk man at Odzi and burnt the body in a hired vehicle.

Siberty Marambwanya said jailed David Garudzo and his two brothers, Brian and Bernard, played a major role gagging to death the unidentified man while he was only holding the victim’s hands.

David Garudzo, who was a funeral policyholder with Old Mutual, was last Thursday jailed 23 years for faking his death to defraud Old Mutual Funeral Services of $70 000.

He also pleaded guilty to conniving with a mortuary attendant and stealing a corpse from Mutare General Hospital, which they later burnt and faked his death.

However, startling revelations came out when his alleged accomplice Marambwanya last Friday appeared before Rusape regional magistrate Mr Livingston Chipadza, facing charges of fraud, malicious damage to property and violating a corpse.

Marambwanya pleaded guilty to fraud saying he accompanied Garudzo’s wife Primrose Jecha to Old Mutual with fake documents to claim the $70 000.

He also pleaded guilty to violating a corpse, but denied the charge of burning the hired Toyota Spacio.

Asked to explain his position considering that the vehicle was burnt together with the corpse, Marambwanya stunned the packed courtroom when he volunteered unsolicited information and upgraded his charge to murder.

“We did not buy the corpse from Mutare General Hospital as alleged, but Brian (Garudzo) killed a person.

“We met the old man who was drunk at Odzi and the Garudzo brothers took him aside.

“We used a piece of cloth to cover his face and Brian gagged him until he died while I was merely holding his hands.

“We were four of us, the Garudzo brothers — Brian, Bernard and David— and myself.

“We undressed the corpse and dressed it with the clothes belonging to David before placing it on the driver’s seat and putting its hands on the steering wheel.

“We fastened the seat belt and I was immediately tasked to go and monitor the situation from a distance to ensure no passers-by discovered the case.

“The three brothers then pushed the vehicle off the road and set it ablaze. I was just watching from a distance when they burnt it,” said Marambwanya.

Rusape district public prosecutor Mr Tirivanhu Mutyasira, appeared for the State.

Regional magistrate Mr Chipadza, in view of the murder confessions, ordered police to carry out further investigations before indicting the suspects for trial at the High Court which has jurisdiction to deal with such matters.

“Since you have revealed in this court that you killed a person, I therefore find that your plea in count one (violating a corpse) was not properly done.

“I therefore alter it to not guilty. This court has no jurisdiction to try murder and it is ideal that the police make further investigations with a view to take the suspects to the High Court for trial,” said Mr Chipadza.

Garudzo’s wife, Jecha, admitted to fraud charges but said she did not benefit from the fraud.

“I admit to misrepresenting to Old Mutual that my husband had died and claiming $70 000.

“But when I received the cash, I simply handed all of it to my husband’s brother who took it to my husband and they shared.

“I did not get any share from the fraud,” she said.

The woman said she had been threatened with death by her husband if she refused to make the claim for $70 000.

Jecha will be back in court next Friday for trial on the same two charges that she denied.

She pleaded not guilty to malicious damage to property and violating a dead body saying she was not there when the offences were committed.