Suicide, arrest in probe into death of Bulawayo woman missing after night out

Thulisile Dube, who vanished after a night out with friends last Saturday before being found dead in her car on Tuesday was murdered, law enforcement sources told ZimLive on Friday.

The main suspect in her murder, 28-year-old Michael Farai Mutasa, has committed suicide.

Police are holding Mutasa's girlfriend identified only as Musa, suspected to be the mastermind of the crime. Musa became friends with Dube after they attended the same primary school.

Mutasa's body was found in North End suburb in an open space adjacent to the Highlanders Club House on Thursday. He hanged himself.

Dube, 38, left home in Old Magwegwe on Saturday afternoon to join up with five female friends.

They started off at Chigumira in Luveve, moved on to Esibayeni in Iminyela before going to Cosmopolitan night club in Ascot for the rest of the night into Sunday morning.

Police have established that Musa observed that Dube had a lot of money and hatched a plan to rob her. She phoned her boyfriend, Mutasa, who joined them at Cosmopolitan.

A police source said: "When they were leaving, Thulisile – as the one with a car – had to drop off some of her friends at their homes. Musa made sure that she and Mutasa would be the last passengers.

"We believe Thulisile was killed in Cowdray Park sometime in the early hours of Sunday and Mutasa drove her body to Emgwanwini where it was found on Tuesday.

"We don't believe it was Mutasa's idea to kill her, and his suicide appears to confirm that. It should also be noted that Mutasa was 28-years-old, 10 years junior to Musa and there's that suspicion that she was overbearing."

ZimLive understands that hours after dumping Thulisile's body and her vehicle in Emgwanwini, Mutasa sent a text message to his mother saying he had killed someone.

"He told his mother that he would leave the body and car in Emganwini," the source said.

Inspector Abednico Ncube of Bulawayo police on Friday confirmed Mutasa's suicide, but would not be drawn over its connection to the Dube murder investigation.

Dube arrived in Zimbabwe on Thursday last week from South Africa where she lives. She was on a week-long visit with her brother, who owns the Honda Fit in which she was found murdered.

She left her parents' house in Old Magwegwe for the meet-up with friends, intending to sleep at her house in Pelandaba West later that night.

When she did not return home on Sunday morning, police were called leading to a desperate search which ended with the discovery of her body. Her mother told reporters on Thursday that she observed scratch marks on her neck and back.