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Crime Reporter 

Post-mortems on the remains of a Chinese couple discovered on Thursday concealed in plastic drums at Eastview Dam in Harare, will be conducted in due course at a local hospital after the Chinese Embassy requested Beijing’s pathologists be part of the process. 

The couple went missing in February 2020 after they had visited a friend in Highlands, Harare. 

So far one suspect has been arrested in connection with the case.

Following their disappearance, their car was found abandoned and intact the following day.

Lei Ding (35) and his wife Chi Lifen (30), disappeared on St Valentine’s Day in 2020.

For three years, police appealed for information on the whereabouts of the Chinese couple.

Their friends and relatives offered a US$1 million reward to anyone with information on the couple’s whereabouts.

Sources close to the investigations yesterday confirmed that post-mortems on the remains of the couple to ascertain the cause of their death would be conducted as soon as the Chinese pathologists had been cleared by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

The post-mortems were initially supposed to have been conducted yesterday but were deferred after the request from the Chinese Embassy. 

In 2020, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said: “The Zimbabwe Republic Police is still investigating the case involving those two Chinese nationals who were last seen on February 14, 2020 after visiting a friend,” he said.

Police engaged Interpol and Chinese authorities as they widened their investigations to establish the whereabouts of the two.

Sources close to the investigations said Lei, a director of a local company, Yafei Building Material and Mining, and his wife lived in Borrowdale Brooke.

Video footage obtained from the closed circuit television system at their house showed the couple leaving at around 11.48am in a white Mercedes Benz ML registration number AFA 3322 to visit a friend, also a Chinese national, in Highlands.

They met their friend outside his house at around 12.38pm before they left for an unknown destination.

The following day, their vehicle was discovered by officers from Mabvuku Police Station parked along Arcturus Road, with the keys still in the ignition. On searching the car, police found keys to the couple’s house.

Also found was Lei’s firearm certificate for cash-in-transit, but the gun was not in the car.