Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The family of a man who was found dead after he had gone missing for 18 days has disputed the results of the post-mortem which say he committed suicide.
The body of Jack Nyathi (45), was found hanging from a tree in Woodlands, Bulawayo on Wednesday and a post-mortem report that was issued by the pathologist at United Bulawayo Hospitals on Thursday says he died of asphyxia and hanging.
The report put the date and time of death as between 28 May and 14 June.
The deceased’s brother, Emmanuel Nyathi, told The Sunday News that they do not accept the results of the autopsy and said his family felt that his brother may have been murdered. He said:
The post-mortem report stated that my brother died as a result of suicide and no foul play was suspected.
However, when we went to the site where his body was found today (yesterday), we found traces of blood and an iron bar which we think may have been used to assault or torture my brother.
We have no choice but to bury him tomorrow (today), but we are exploring the possibility of having his body exhumed as soon as possible and seeking a second opinion from another pathologist as to the cause of death.
Nyathi added that his brother went missing on the night of 28 May after calling his boss and telling him that he was tied up and people were threatening to kill him. Said Nyathi:
I received a call from my brother’s boss on the night of May 28 and he said Jack had called him at around 10 or 11 pm that same night and told him that some people had tied him and threatened to kill him.
We made a formal report with the police the following day. We tried to look for him for 18 days and even went through the same bush a few times.
At one point we asked the police to use sniffer dogs to try and find him but this was not done until some men who were poaching sand in the area saw his body hanging from a tree.
These people reported the matter at Hillside Police Station and also called me because one of them had heard that we were looking for Jack who was missing.
I went to the police station and then accompanied them to the bushy area where we found my brother hanging.
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesperson in Bulawayo Province Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed that no foul play was suspected in the death of Nyathi.
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