Online Reporter
Patrick Chitumba
A 19-YEAR-OLD Kwekwe teenager has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his 41-year-old aunt in cold blood, before sexually violating her corpse in a maize field they were working in.
The incident occurred on January 27, 2023 at Plot Number 61, Maywood in Kwekwe.Tapiwa Mereka, of the same address, attacked his aunt, Mary Mereka with a hoe while they were weeding the family field.
He struck her several times on the head and above the right eye and she died on the spot. He then sexually assaulted her lifeless body, stole her undergarments and fled the scene.
Tapiwa fled to Sebakwe River where he dumped the murder weapon — a hoe, into a nearby thicket.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi, sitting on circuit in Gweru convicted Tapiwa of murder.
Tapiwa was represented by Ms Samantha Chivivi of Hara Tafa Associates while the State was led by prosecutor, Mr Talent Tadenyika.
In his ruling, Justice Mutevedzi said the attack was premeditated and sexually motivated.
“The field was a convenient and secluded place where they were just the two of them. The accused confessed to murdering the deceased, who was later found not wearing her undergarments. Upon arrest, he led the police to the thicket where the hoe and the black undergarment were recovered,” said Justice Mutevedzi.
The judge said the gruesome murder was driven by lust.
Mr Tadenyika told the court that Tapiwa first struck his aunt on the back of the head with the blunt side of the hoe, then delivered further blows to the left side of her head and her forehead.
She bled profusely and died on the spot. After the killing, the accused fled, leaving the body in the field.
The crime was discovered by a passer-by, Ms Winnie Murega (67), who stumbled on the lifeless body and reported the matter to the police, leading to Tapiwa’s arrest.
