11/07/2026
*Mystery deepens over city lodge ‘murder’*
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©Hanyani News Online
By Miriam Mangwaya, Newsday - THE family of a 30-year-old Health and Child Care ministry accountant whose decomposing body was found in a room at a Harare lodge has petitioned Police Commissioner-General Stephen Mutamba, accusing police investigators of failing to thoroughly probe what they believe is a murder case.
In a letter written by the Chimhundu family and copied to the Officer Commanding Harare South district, Officer Commanding Harare province and the police Press and Public Relations Department, the family said they remained “grieved and confused” over the death of Precious Tariro Chimhundu of Bikita.
Precious disappeared on May 20, 2026 after reportedly booking a room at Tynwald Gardens and Lodges.
Her family reported her as missing at Kuwadzana Police Station.
Her body was only discovered about five to six days later in an advanced state of decomposition.
The family said several unanswered questions surrounding the case had fuelled suspicions that investigators prematurely treated the matter as su***de despite medical evidence pointing to another cause of death.
According to the letter, the family requested a post-mortem examination at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, where the pathologist allegedly concluded that Chimhundu died from a head injury and intracranial haemorrhage.
The family said the post-mortem findings were also reflected on Chimhundu’s official death certificate issued by the Civil Registry Department.
According to the death certificate, the cause of death is recorded as head trauma, with intracranial haemorrhage listed as the secondary cause of death.
The family argued that these official findings were inconsistent with the continued treatment of the case as a suspected su***de.
“We were clearly informed that the death of our beloved one was not due to any natural causes [and] neither was it su***de,” the family
