Grade Zero girl (4) found with body parts missing in suspected ritual murder

By Nqobile Tshili

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD pupil from St Lucy primary school in the Kombo area of Insiza district has been found dead with her lips, liver and other body parts missing in a suspected case of ritual murder.

Princess Mpofu, a Grade Zero pupil, did not return home from school on Monday, sparking panic among villagers who immediately constituted a search party which found her mutilated body in a pond at around 7AM on Tuesday.

The incident struck fear into villagers who told The Chronicle they suspected the child was killed for ritual purposes.

They have since started escorting their children to and from school.

Shell-shocked family members said they were struggling to come to terms with Princess’ brutal murder.

Princess’ grandfather, Peter Maseko, 65, said he last saw her alive when she left for school on Monday.

“She never returned and we became worried when she did not come back at her usual time. Her grandmother rushed to school to check for her but she wasn’t there. The teachers told her that she dismissed normally with other children,” he said.

Maseko said villagers mobilised each other and searched for the child, to no avail.

“We spent the better part of Monday evening searching for the child. We even thought she had run off to her mother who has remarried (in Lendela, a neighbouring village) but she wasn’t there,” said Maseko.

“For starters that area (where her body was found) is far from home, it’s about 2KM from here. It’s also far from the school so there’s no way this child could have drowned,” Maseko said.

“We suspect her killers threw the body into the pond after dismembering her.”

Violet Gumbo, 70, a neighbour, narrated the anguish and heartbreak she went through after villagers retrieved the child’s body from the pond.

She said she had lived through the liberation war and the Gukurahundi disturbances but had never seen such a gruesome killing.

“We found the child dead at around 7AM. We called the police before we could remove her from the water,” Gumbo said, her voice breaking with emotion.

She said she almost collapsed when police asked villagers to remove the body from the water.

“That’s when I got the shock of my life. I’ve heard about such things (ritual murders) but I had never seen it with my own eyes,” said Gumbo.

She said after discovering the child’s lower lip was missing, villagers requested to further examine her body.

“She was still wearing her uniform. When we undressed her we found that the left side of her abdomen was ripped open,” Gumbo said.

“Some body parts had been removed. One eye was hanging out of the socket. She had deep cuts on her face”.

Villagers have called for an urgent meeting with the area’s traditional leader, Chief Jahana, saying they feared another child could be attacked.

“Such events need to be addressed as soon as possible. Our traditional leaders must sit down with the community and resolve the issue,” said Colet Gumbo, a villager.

He said the chilling murder had struck terror into villagers’ hearts. The family is still waiting for a postmortem report which is being conducted at a Bulawayo hospital.

Matabeleland South Police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Loveness Mangena could not be reached for comment yesterday. The Chronicle