Patrick Chitumba, pchitumba1@gmail.com
A ROUTINE trip to town to collect a mattress turned into a nightmare for a Gweru house caretaker who returned with police to find four university students traumatised and trapped in a room with the body of their friend, allegedly shot dead by her former husband.
The caretaker, Blessing Nkomo, had left her home in Senga KMP on Thursday afternoon when she received a disturbing call from one of the children at the property, asking whether she was safe and if she was in her room.
Her fears grew as she learnt that a man in a hooded jacket was moving around the property, some doors were open and students had allegedly been threatened, their phones confiscated and were locked inside a room.
When Nkomo returned with police officers, the four students were still trapped with the body of 25-year-old Lisedi Nkomo, a Midlands State University (MSU) Level Four, First Semester student who had been shot in the forehead.
The shooting occurred at about 5.30PM at Number 1082, Senga KMP, in Gweru. The suspect, Godknows Muleya, a director of a Bulawayo-based security company, is being sought by police.
Recounting the ordeal, Blessing said she initially thought the call from one of the children was a routine check on her whereabouts.
“I was in town when a child who stays here called and asked me whether I was safe and whether I was in my room. I told her that I was not at home,” she said.
Blessing instructed the child to check the rooms and establish whether anything suspicious had happened.
The child reportedly found some doors open and a man wearing a hooded jacket moving around the property. When students went into the passage to investigate, the man allegedly threatened to shoot them.
“He took their phones and ordered them to get inside. Four of the students were forced into one room, the same room where my tenant was shot. He locked them inside and threw their phones into a bathtub,” said Blessing.
The discovery that the students’ phones had been confiscated heightened her fears.
“When I heard that the phones had been thrown into the bathtub, I realised that things were not right at home. I told my husband that we should forget about the mattress and concentrate on getting help because I feared for the children’s safety,” said Blessing.
The couple sought police assistance and eventually contacted a Criminal Investigations Department (CID) team travelling to Shurugwi after officers at a roadblock linked them to the team.
They returned to the property with two police officers, only to find the students pleading to be released.
“My girls were crying and shouting, ‘Auntie, things are not good here! Open for us!’ They then told me that one of them was dead,” said Blessing.
The students feared the armed man could still be inside the property.
“I felt all my strength leave me. They were pleading with us to open the door because they feared the man might still be inside the house and they did not know what was happening,” said Blessing.
With the keys locked inside, police asked Blessing to find a crowbar to force the door open.
The four students were eventually freed, but their friend was dead.
Blessing said some students had been staying at the property since February, while Lisedi moved in on August 2 at the beginning of the current semester.
She recalled seeing a man at the property earlier that afternoon but said she had no reason to suspect that anything was wrong.
“I saw a man who was dressed in blue and greeted him as I was preparing to leave for town. He told me that the student was there. I assumed he was a relative or someone visiting a student, as parents and relatives sometimes come to check on their children,” said Blessing.
She also noticed a grey or dark-silver vehicle parked outside but did not record its registration number.
Blessing later learnt that the visitor was suspected of being linked to the shooting. Students told her he had visited about two weeks earlier and had allegedly been trying to reconcile with Lisedi.
A friend of the deceased, who later arrived with some medication, reportedly identified the man as someone who had previously lived nearby and had pleaded with Lisedi to resume their relationship.
The circumstances surrounding the relationship and the shooting remain under investigation.
The killing has also left an infant, estimated to be eight or nine months old, without its mother. Blessing said the baby was staying with its paternal grandmother.
National police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the shooting and said a manhunt had been launched for Muleya.
He said the suspect visited Lisedi at about 3 PM before a misunderstanding arose about two-and-a-half hours later.
“The suspect then shot the now deceased once on the forehead using an unknown pistol,” he said.
Comm Nyathi said other students rushed from their rooms after hearing the gunshot but were threatened by Muleya.
He allegedly confiscated their phones, threw them into a toilet chamber and locked the students in a room with Lisedi’s body.
Lisedi’s body was found face upwards in a pool of blood in her room. A 6.25mm cartridge, a broken Itel mobile phone and a Samsung Galaxy A05s were recovered,” said Comm Nyathi.
He appealed to members of the public to resolve disputes amicably and respect the sanctity of human life.
Gender activist Locadia Mavhudzi said the killing highlighted the devastating consequences of gender-based violence (GBV), particularly for children and families left behind.
“A young woman has lost her life, an eight-month-old baby has been left without a mother, and a family has been plunged into grief,” she said.
Ms Mavhudzi said intimate partner violence should not be normalised or dismissed as a private dispute, adding that relationship breakdowns could never justify violence.
“No relationship is worth a human life. Love does not justify control, threats, intimidation or violence,” she said.
She urged people experiencing relationship difficulties to seek counselling and appropriate support rather than resorting to violence.
Ms Mavhudzi also expressed concern about the psychological impact on the students who were allegedly locked in the room with their friend’s body, saying the experience could leave them
struggling with shock, fear, grief and anxiety.
She called for compassionate, trauma-informed counselling and safe spaces to help the students process the experience.
“GBV is not merely a family matter; it is a societal crisis that destroys lives, traumatises communities and leaves children with lifelong emotional scars,” she said.
Source: Caretaker’s nightmare as gunman locks in students with slain friend – herald
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