Mystery surrounds death of missing child

Masvingo police spokesperson Inspector Tinaye Matake has confirmed the incident and said investigations were under way.
“I can confirm that we received the case of a girl-child who went missing on 25 December 2011 from her family house at 2907/16 Musambasi Street, Mucheke Section F only for her body to be found in the yard on the morning of 29 December.
“Police investigations are under way,” said Insp Matake.
The incident that has left residents of Mucheke shell shocked and living in fear of what happened at around 5 am when the body of Nokuthula Rwaibva was found lying facing downwards, by a female tenant, who had woken up to clean the yard.
According to the maternal grandmother of the deceased infant, Ms Molyn Maziva the child went missing on Christmas Day when she was left outside playing with other children by her mother Miss Abigail Bheka (20) only to find her body dumped in the yard, about 100 metres from the family house, four days later.
The grandmother said when the child went missing the girl’s mother had let her play outside while she remained in the house since she was within a shouting distance and could hear her talking. It is said, during that afternoon, the mother even went out to change the child’s nappies and left her playing again.
She, however, was surprised at around 3pm when she realised that she could not hear her child’s voice as before but was still hopeful, as she thought the girl had been taken by her father who lives with his parents in the same neighbourhood.
Her worries were confirmed when she phoned the girl’s father, Mr Honest Rwaibva (21), asking if he had taken his daughter but he professed ignorance and quickly came to find out.
Together with the husband they carried further investigations and one of the neighbours told them that they had seen a man holding the girl child who was putting on yellow panties without anything on top.
The two allegedly went to the police and supplied them with the information. It is alleged that the police only came the following day at around 7pm to make investigations but they were not successful until yesterday when the child’s body was found in the family’s yard.
After hearing screams from the tenant who had stumbled on the body of the infant, Ms Maziva said they ignored her but later went out to find out when they discovered that it was their tenant who was crying loudly.
“When we first heard the screaming we did not think that there was anything wrong and I went outside with my daughter (Miss Bheka) after realising that the crying was not stopping. Before asking what was wrong we saw my niece’s body lying with her tummy facing downwards but the whole body was scalded up to the head,” she said.
Insp Matake said the body was taken to Masvingo General Hospital awaiting a post-mortem.