Man beheads girlfriend - full story

A BINGA man allegedly went berserk on Tuesday last week, chopped off his girlfriend's head, put it in a cardboard box and took it inside the house before going to bed, leaving the headless body lying outside until the next morning.

The gruesome murder of Ms Fortunate Mutale by her live-in boyfriend, Wonder Musaka, has left Siabuwa villagers shell-shocked, with some even calling for an urgent cleansing ceremony.

Musaka is in police custody at Siabuwa Police Station, where he is assisting with investigations.

Matabeleland North police spokesperson, Inspector Siphiwe Makonese was unavailable for comment as her mobile phone continuously went unanswered. However, sources close to investigations revealed that Musaka and Ms Mutale were known to be having domestic disputes for some time.

On the fateful night, neighbours reportedly heard Mutale screaming for help and when they rushed to their house, they found her headless body close to the gate, with Musaka and Mutale's head nowhere to be seen.

"This happened around 9pm. Neighbours say that Musaka had fled the scene of the crime, taking their two children, aged one and two years old, with him, whom he later left with his father who also stays in the same village.

"When villagers searched the house they found the head inside a cardboard box, next to the couple's bed. The bed had signs showing that Musaka had briefly slept in it before fleeing the scene of the crime. Police collected the body and the head the following morning," said the source.

Musaka was arrested on Wednesday last week at around 6pm after villagers spotted him roaming in the village.

"When the villagers effected a citizen's arrest on him, he was now purporting to be mad, muttering inaudible sounds and further claiming that it was his wife who had bewitched and led him to the murder.

"However, there is a possibility that he is using the act of being mad as a way of evading arrest because he is known to be an individual of sober habits, who had no history of having a mental problem," said the source.

Villagers have since engaged Chief Siabuwa and other traditional leaders in the area to urgently convene a cleansing ceremony and rid the district of the dark cloud.

"Early this year, there was a gruesome murder and now this one. Something has to be done because this is a message from the ancestors that they are not happy at all," said a villager who declined to be named.

Early this year police arrested four suspects and shot one dead in Binga following a gruesome murder in which the suspects allegedly killed four people, with one of the victims being beheaded.

The beheaded victim's skin on his head and face had been removed and his brain was missing, amid suspicion that the crimes could have been committed for ritual purposes.