The Sunday Mail
What started off as a routine stroll down the Avenues area for a gang of street kids on that fateful summer night back in 2003 is best remembered as Harare’s darkest hour.
Residents of the area give very different accounts of what really transpired, but according to police reports, it is said that a gang of street urchins came across a bag containing what they presumed was meat, only for them to find out it contained decomposing remains of a human torso.
Approximately 24 hours later, another bag, this time containing the chest cavity, liver and part of the groin, was discovered at a flat at the corner of Sixth Street and Baines Avenue, while another body part was found around the Greenwood Park area and finally, a piece of a leg was dumped at the doorstep of the police headquarters.
Police investigators were perplexed as they could not attain any concrete DNA tests to determine whether these killings were connected or it was just one case.
They could not even establish the identities of the deceased.
This led to instant panic and fear in the entire Avenues area and numerous theories flew around, among them being the possibility of a serial killer whose weapon of choice was a butcher’s shredding machine, the possibility of drug dealing or ritual killings.
The incident remains a cold case yet to be solved, and the residents of the area have different interpretations of the events.
One resident, who claims to be a veteran in the area, feigned ignorance of the matter, saying: “I have stayed in this area since 1985 and I don’t remember anything of that sort ever happening; please leave and let sleeping dogs lie.”
However, it is the story of the impact the killings had on one particular resident that is most likely to leave one teary.
It seems like a lifetime now, but once upon a time, Fanuel Muripo (not his real name) was once the model employee; a caretaker at a flat in the area, loved, respected and revered by all.
His duties included the general upkeep and maintenance of the flat, which earned him a modest salary but gave him the comfort of a rent- and utility-free accommodation.
The world was indeed his ouster.
Now, just over 11 years later, Muripo resigned as a caretaker at the flat and life has not been so good to him as he now ekes out a living selling anything and everything he can get his hands on, from household goods to motor spare parts. He survives from hand to mouth in the less fancy dusty suburb of Dzivaresekwa Extension.
At face value, his current state of affairs is not unlike any other self-employed entrepreneur, in the micro enterprises bracket, but it is the sleepless nights, horrific images and paranoia that make his case different.
It is the same paranoia that The Sunday Mail crew witnessed first hand as a simple request for an interview saw Muripo hole up at a nearby police station out of fear that the crew would harm him.
What followed was a rigorous process of verification of the crew’s identification and true intentions in desiring audience with the 43-year-old man.
For a better understanding of Muripo’s anxiety and fear, one would have to go back in time, 11 years to be exact, during one of the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s most infamous cases; a cold case yet to be solved and involving the murder and decapitation of a middle-aged woman in the Avenues area.
Muripo is the man who discovered the second bag that contained the chest cavity, liver and part of the groin at a flat at the corner of Sixth Street and Baines Avenue.
“I don’t remember the actual specifics of the dates but it was around 2003 and I was working at a local flat in the Avenues area as a caretaker. I used to start work around seven in the morning but I would usually take a routine sweep of the area before I clocked in.
“On that particular day, I remember washing a resident’s car there at the flat when I noticed a big black bag on the ground.
“The first thing that came to my mind was why someone would simply throw their rubbish anywhere but when I went to pick it up, I noticed the contents looked like a big chunk of meat,” he said.
The piece of meat drew him to investigate further and that was when he discovered the actual contents of the bag.
“When I picked the bag up there was this smell that came out of the contents. So I decided to open, only to find out that there was a lot of blood, a chunk of meat and what looked like a human breast.
My memory is a bit hazy, but I remember calling this policeman who resided at that same flat and kept my distance from the bag out of fear.
“In the days that followed, I started hearing stories of other pieces being found roughly around my flat.
There was panic all around as people came out with their theories mostly revolving around ritual killings, drug trafficking wars and a serial killer on the prowl.
“I became very popular as people constantly called, came to my place to inquire about the events of that day and chief among them were journalists, policemen and neighbours.”
Although it is now 11 years since the incident occurred, Muripo remains haunted by the events of that week and believes they are responsible for the way his life has turned out.
“I have made some sort of peace with the images of that woman killed and chopped, but it is only because I resigned from my duties at the flat and distanced myself from the area.
“Today, I do what I can to survive and feed my family, but it’s been very hard because sometimes memories of that week come back here and there and it causes bouts of anxiety for me.”
Efforts to get an update on the case from the police proved futile as this news crew was promised updates on numerous occasions but none of them ever came to fruition. However, indications are that the case was never solved.
Questions remain 11 years after the killing or is it killings? Did the body parts all belong to the same person or were there several victims?
Was dumping a leg at the police station a way of playing cat-and-mouse games with law enforcement agents? Was this a ritual killing or the handiwork of a serial killer?
Who did it?
