Child goes missing, found dead at shrine
By Bernard Chiketo
MUTARE – A two-year-old child that went missing during a Johanne Marange Apostolic Church gathering last week was found dead at the shrine in an advanced state of decomposition.
The incident has since triggered social media frenzy with some fingering some prominent members of the sect of having killed the child for ritual purposes.
Manicaland deputy police spokesperson Luxson Chananda said police were investigating the child’s death.
Chananda said the toddler was sleeping in a tent at the shrine with his mother Patience Fenyere, 28, on the day he went missing.
Fenyere left the child sleeping for an unspecified amount of time only to return to an empty tent, she said.
She frantically looked for him with the help of others at the shrine but to no avail leading her to make a police report for a missing person.
The corpse of the child was only discovered 11 days later on October 31, by Arnold Mabiya, 44, in an advanced state of decomposition.
Chananda said police’s Criminal Investigations Department was investigating the death. Daily News
