Jennifer Dube, a mother of one, vanished without a trace on May 2. The desperate search that followed was a descent into a world of dead ends, whispers, and growing fear. On September 2, that fear became a horrifying, concrete reality. Her decomposed body was unearthed from a shallow grave in the one place she should have been safe: her own garden. Bound with wires and wrapped in pieces of cloth, her remains were a gruesome proof of a life cut short.

A brave villager’s anonymous tip had finally broken the silence, sending shockwaves through a community already bruised by rumour and uncertainty. What has left Magotsha reeling is the chilling allegation that Jennifer’s killers were none other than her stepdaughter, Linna Mzimela, and the stepdaughter’s boyfriend, known only as Nkosi.

Jennifer’s aunt, Monica Nsingo, still struggles to grasp the sheer cruelty of the crime.

“My brother, the late liberation war hero Isaac Mzimela, left behind his wife Jennifer after his death. Linna is his daughter from his first marriage, but the relationship between stepmother and stepdaughter was always tense,” Nsingo revealed.

These tensions, allegedly fuelled by a bitter inheritance dispute over Isaac’s retirement package and rent money from a house in Bulawayo, had been simmering for years.

“Linna and her older siblings have been having problems with their stepmother for a long time over his retirement package and rent money from a house in Bulawayo,” Nsingo said.

In May, those long-simmering tensions allegedly erupted into deadly violence.

“When I got wind that my brother’s wife was missing, I asked my niece Jennifer, who claimed that her stepmother had gone to Lupane to get a new passport. We waited for her return, but she never came back,” Nsingo recalled.

For months, the missing person’s case languished. But villagers whispered among themselves, suspecting foul play but keeping silent out of fear. The silence was finally broken in late August, when local traditional leader, Headman Mazibisa, was approached by a concerned villager.

“When a villager goes missing, villagers must report the case to the police and traditional leadership as soon as possible. A police report about the disappearance of Dube was made to the police, but we were kept in the dark for several months,” said Headman Mazibisa.

It took a single anonymous phone call for him to break the silence.

“The caller begged me not to reveal his name but told me Nkosi had admitted to killing Jennifer and burying her in the garden. I immediately informed the police,” said the headman.

Police dug less than a metre into the ground and found Jennifer’s body. The gruesome discovery confirmed the family’s worst fears.

“It was a disturbing scene, but at least she could finally be given a proper burial,” Headman Mazibisa said.

On the day of the burial, a heavy silence hung over the homestead as hundreds of mourners gathered. Some came to mourn a life lost too soon, but others came simply to witness the final chapter of a story that had gripped the community for months.

Among them were politicians, including Zanu-PF Senator for Tsholotsho, Alice Dube, and Bulawayo Senator Molly Mpofu, who both spoke of Jennifer as a dedicated wife and a valued party member.

“We are here to bury our late comrade’s wife, who was killed in a very chilling manner,” Mpofu stated.

According to Nsingo, the trail of evidence led to Linna Mzimela’s arrest in Bulawayo on Wednesday after she allegedly tried to hand over her child’s school uniforms to her sister. She is now in custody at Tsholotsho Police Station.

“On Wednesday, police brought her to her father’s homestead, where she buried her stepmother after killing her together with her boyfriend,” Nsingo said. The boyfriend, Nkosi, is still at large.

For Jennifer’s family, the arrest offers a small, cold measure of comfort.

But the pain of betrayal — of a life taken not by strangers, but by those bound to her by family ties — will take much longer to heal.

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