Staff Reporter
A Grade One learner (name withheld) at Longwe Primary School in Inyathi was a week ago murdered in cold blood by a suspect who also allegedly raped her lifeless body, police have confirmed.
The deceased girl’s body was found six days later in a bush near Longwe village with a blood-stained stone next to it.
Police, who have since arrested a 17-year-old juvenile from the same area for the alleged crimes suspect the girl was also raped.
The victim’s lifeless body was discovered in a bush by villagers who had formed a search party to help the girl’s mother look for her missing daughter.
Matabeleland North police spokesperson, Inspector Glory Banda, said on 21 October 2022 at around 9:45am, the girl requested her teacher’s permission to go to the toilet and did not return.
The teacher suspected that she had dodged lessons and gone home and learnt about her disappearance when her mother visited the school in the evening to look for her.
“She never returned to the classroom and the teacher thought that she had gone home. On the same day in the evening her mother went to Longwe Primary School looking for her child and she was informed that she had left the school before break time,” said Insp Banda.
He said the girl’s mother searched for her daughter but could not find her, resulting in her filing a missing person report on Monday last week at ZRP Kenilworth base, Inyathi.
Villagers of Longwe village, Kenilworth, Inyathi, Insp Banda said, joined in the search for the missing child and found the body on Thursday in the bush.
Police investigations then led to the arrest of the suspect.
Police said the suspect indicated that he saw the now deceased girl exiting the school fence through an undesignated exit point and he assaulted her with a stone several times.
Upon seeing that the girl had become unconscious, Insp Banda said, the suspect allegedly raped her once and left the scene.
Insp Banda urged members of the public to respect human life and to desist from doing such “heinous” acts.
