Wife slayer ‘hangs self’ at in-laws’

By Sukulwenkosi Dube

A BULILIMA man who bludgeoned his wife to death before axing his six-year-old daughter leaving her for dead was yesterday found hanging from a tree outside his in-laws’ homestead in a suspected case of suicide.

Themba Ndlovu, 28, of Gampu area is suspected to have hanged himself in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Ndlovu, on Friday, killed his 26-year-old wife Ntombi Gumbo in cold blood and left her head attached to the neck by a thread of flesh following a dispute over a pair of shoes that he accused her of getting from a lover.

He fled after turning the axe on their daughter who allegedly watched her mother die. The girl is still battling for life at Plumtree District Hospital.

Villagers reportedly reeled in shock when they discovered his body as they were coming from burying his wife at Mazwaligwe Village yesterday. His in-laws’ homestead is about 25 km from the village where he killed their daughter.

Headman Mazwaligwe whose jurisdiction covers the area said a woman from the community stumbled on the body and screamed, alerting other villagers.

“We were gathered at the Gumbo homestead early in the morning after coming from the burial service. One of the villagers came screaming and told us there was a man hanging from a tree just outside the Gumbo homestead.

“We discovered that it was the man who was on the run for killing his wife and axing his child. He had used a rope to hang himself from a big tree which is situated at a bushy area directly behind the Gumbo homestead,” he said.

Mazwaligwe said villagers felt it was a bad omen that Ndlovu chose to hang himself behind his in-laws’ homestead.

He said it was mind-numbing to stumble on a killer’s corpse soon after burying a victim who had died in the most brutal way.

“While the massive manhunt which had been launched for the culprit has come to a sudden end, it isn’t a relief at all.

“This is a haunting sequence of events that we shall never forget,” said the headman.

Ndlovu axed his wife to death on Friday around 4PM and then turned on his six-year-old daughter whom he attacked with the same axe and left for dead. He accused his wife of bringing home a new pair of shoes, which he said were bought by her boyfriend.

He had been on the run for the past four days.

His wife died on the spot while their daughter is still in the intensive care unit at Plumtree hospital.

Gumbo had reportedly tried to explain to her husband that the tackies were a gift from her mother but he would not listen.

Traumatised villagers gave a blood-curdling description of the bloody hut in which Ndlovu killed his wife. They said the image of his wife’s almost decapitated body will remain etched in their minds forever. The Chronicle