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Itai Mutami (35), a teacher at Makanda Primary School, is alleged to have fatally assaulted her maid, Sarudzai Chitevere (17), after she caught her red-handed being intimate with her husband Patrick Sandati (36) in the couple’s bedroom.
Mutami then reportedly connived with her husband and allegedly concealed Chitevere’s body for 12 days.
The deceased’s naked body was later found hanging from a short tree in the couple’s fields with some body parts missing.
Missing from Chitevere’s body were feet, which were both chopped from the ankle, an ear, breast and private parts.
According to Oripah Mariridza of Negombwe Village under Chief Ruzane who is related to Chitevere, Mutami had hired the teenager to take care of her unemployed husband and children.
It is alleged that Chitevere, who had worked for the couple for one and half years, later fell in love with Sandati.
Word about the pair’s relationship is said to have reached the primary school teacher who set a trap and found her husband and the maid in bed on the fateful day.
“They (Sandati and his wife) came here on 23 April reporting that Chitevere went missing following a misunderstanding. They came back two days later with her clothes but I refused to accept them,” narrated Mrs Mariridza.
She said Chitevere’s body was later found hanging from “a small tree” on 2 May .
“How can one kill someone who cooked for her for one and half years so ruthlessly? We are shocked,” said Mrs Mariridza.
Chitevere’s relatives are now refusing to bury her body.
“How can we bury a child with missing body parts? All we are saying to them is please bring back the body parts you took away and we will bury her,” said Chitevere’s grandfather, Mr Naison Chitevere.
“We are shocked and angry at this gruesome murder and we demand an explanation from those who killed her,” added Mr Sandati. A postmortem report confirms Chitevere died from injuries sustained during an assault.
Mutami and Sandati appeared before a Marondera provincial magistrate facing murder charges and were remanded in custody.
“On April 20 2012 at Sandati Village under Chief Ruzane, the accused as husband and wife connived to assault Sarudzai Chitevere, their maid, with open hands, sticks and sweet reed many times all over her body till her death. They tried to conceal the body for 12 days,” reads the charge sheet at the court.
Online Reporter