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George Maponga in Masvingo

In yet another intriguing murder case that has stunned the Mwenezi community, a 32- year-old woman from Neshuro allegedly axed her husband and daughter to death before committing suicide following a row over the upkeep of her in-laws.

Florence Nhotito of Paringira Village in the Makurirofa area of Neshuro on Saturday allegedly killed her husband Simbarashe Butete and daughter Leander (3), in cold blood before hanging herself on a tree, about 3km from her matrimonial homestead.

Stunned villagers found Simbarashe and his daughter Leander’s bodies lying in a pool of blood in their bedroom hut with two axes stuck in their heads.

Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa confirmed murder and suicide cases saying bodies of the trio were taken to Neshuro District Hospital.

Inspector Dhewa said investigations were ongoing to establish the actual circumstances leading to the grisly murders and suicide.

“Police managed to recover both axes that were stuck in the first deceased (Simbarashe) and the second deceased (Leander)’s bodies. The suspect, who is now deceased, was found hanging in a tree about 3km from her home and the bodies of the trio are awaiting postmortem,” said Inspector Dhewa.

According to facts gleaned by the police on Saturday morning, Simbarashe allegedly had a heated dispute with his wife over the upkeep of the former’s parents who stayed about 100 metres from their matrimonial home.

Its is not clear what precipitated the dispute but it erupted in the presence of their eight year-old son.

Florence allegedly then asked the son to go and fetch some firewood while she remained behind with the other two deceased.

After a while, Florence allegedly left her home and passed through a neighbour’s house where she told a juvenile girl that she had murdered her hubby and daughter and that she was going to kill herself.

The girl alerted other villagers about what Florence had told her before going to the latter’s mother-in-law’s house to also inform her.

Villagers ganged up and tried to apprehend Florence but she outpaced them and vanished into the bush.
They then went to Simbarashe’s homestead and found his lifeless body and that of his daughter lying in pools of blood on the bed and sofa respectively.
Two axes were stuck on the pair’s heads which also had deep axe cuts and the back and on the left and right side.

A further search by villagers led to the discovery of Florence’s body hanging on a tree branch on the outsksirts of the village.

A report was made to the police who came and took the bodies to the mortuary.

The gruesome murder in Neshuro comes hardly a week after two villagers in Mwenezi allegedly connived to murder a 6- year-old niece to one of them before cutting-off her genitals for sale in South

Africa after burning her body to ashes.
Only some teeth, ribs and parts of the skull were recovered from the fire.