Uncle confesses to raping, killing niece

death before tying the body to a tree.
Casper Chihota (24) of Riverhead Farm in Banket went into hiding soon after committing the crime before appearing at the funeral and confessed to his brother who is the girl’s father that he had raped and killed her.
Mashonaland West provincial police spokesperson Ins-pector Mabgweazara recently confirmed the incident and the arrest of Casper.
“We are dealing with a case of murder and possible rape in which an uncle waylaid his niece before raping and strangling her to death. He then fled before coming back during the funeral to confess,” he said.
The incident occurred on 18 June when the late Pamhidzai was sent to the garden about two kilometres to collect some vegetables by her father together with her twin brother and sister.
Along the way they met Casper who instructed the twins to go to an adjacent farm to buy him some milk while their older sister went to the garden to collect the vegetables as instructed by her father.
“He told the twins that they would meet Pamhidzai at the garden on their way from the farm,” he said.
However, when they returned about two hours later, Pamhidzai was not there and Casper emerged from the bush and told them that she had run away from him leaving the vegetables.
They went with the vegetables home and told their father that Pamhidzai was missing.
He made a report of a missing person to the police the following morning.
Investigations by the police led to the discovery of the girl’s body in a sitting position about 100 metres from the garden with her neck tied to a tree using a string from a tree bark.
Experts from CID Chinhoyi attended the scene and observed that she had bruises on her neck while her skirt and pant were stained with blood.
Her tongue was also protruding from her mouth.
“As police we observed that the clothes were blood stained and that the blood was coming from the girl’s private parts which leads us to suspect that she was raped before being strangled or that she could have died during the commissioning of the crime,” he said.
Casper was arrested on June 20 after confessing during the girl’s funeral that he had raped and killed her.