Man (22) kills sister (18) in cold blood

IN a catalogue of callous murder scenes resembling a horror movie, a 22-year-old Chivi man struck his 18-year-old stepsister with a stone and when she fell down and became unconscious, dragged her to an anthill in a thicket, went home and collected a spear, stabbed her several times in the neck before camouflaging her body with tree leaves.

He then left the body on the anthill in a thicket at sunset and went home where around midnight he harnessed donkeys and went back to where he had left his stepsister's body, tied it to the donkeys and dragged it for more than three kilometres to the busy Masvingo-Beitbridge road and dumped it in the middle of the road where it was later run over by a haulage truck.

This was after she had refused to restrain donkeys that he was herding from invading the fields.

This was heard during the initial appearance of the accused Jefta Runesu of Village Gwezva, Chief Nemauzhe in Chivi at Masvingo magistrates' court before Ms Linmary Manyika for contravening Section 47 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9: 23, Murder.

He murdered his stepsister Juliet Runesu on 24 January this year. He was remanded in custody to next week.

The State case as presented by the prosecutor Mr James Murambiza was that Jefta was herding donkeys some distance from their home. While he was there Juliet passed by the grazing place where she was asked by Jefta to drive the donkeys close to where he was and restrain them from going into the fields.

It is alleged that Juliet refused to drive the donkeys to where Jefta was and that did not go down well with him. He allegedly took it as insubordination and picked a stone and struck Juliet on the back of her head.

Juliet, the court was told, fell down and lost consciousness. Realising that Juliet had become unconscious Jefta dragged her to an anthill in a thicket and went home to collect a spear that he used to stab her with several times in the neck killing her instantly.

Mr Murambiza told the court that Jefta then camouflaged the body with tree leaves before going back home at sunset. When Juliet's mother, who is Jefta's stepmother, who had spent the day in the fields, asked him on the whereabouts of Juliet, Jefta said he had not seen her the whole day.

The court further heard that around midnight Jefta woke up, harnessed donkeys and went back to where he had hidden Juliet's body. He tied the body to the donkeys with a rope and dragged it for 3km to the Masvingo-Beitbridge road where he dumped it along the highway.

The body was later run over by a haulage truck but the spear stabbed part was untainted. A postmortem was conducted which showed that she had been killed before she was run over by the haulage truck, leading to the arrest of the accused person who is said to have had a long-standing grudge with the deceased and her mother, accusing them of influencing his father to expel him from home sometime ago.