BULAWAYO – In a shocking incident, a 34-year-old Bulawayo woman brutally murdered her husband and the couple’s two minor children at a family home after complaining that the family was living in poverty.

The incident, confirmed in a statement by Bulawayo deputy police provincial spokesperson Assistant Inspector Nomalanga Msebele, happened this Thursday in the city’s Cowdray Park suburb.

The murder suspect was named as Happiness Chimbangu while her slain victims were identified as Edwin Chimbangu, 35, Promise Chimbangu, aged 4 and the couple’s 7 month old baby.

According to the police, the woman had visited her mother’s home at 8 in the morning to complain her husband was not providing enough for the family which, she said, was living in “abject poverty”.

Police said she returned to her mother again around 3PM looking more stressed, telling her parent “to take care of her children as she was going to kill herself”.

“At around 1AM” added the police spokesperson, “the accused’s mother received a phone call from the accused person’s husband requesting her to come over to their place of residence as the accused person was talking about suicide.

“The accused person’s mother teamed up with two adult family church mates and proceeded to the accused’s house where they conducted some counselling to the accused person after confessing to them that she wanted to kill herself. They then left for their respective homes at around 1AM on the 30th day of January 2025.

“Two hours later at around 0200 hours, the accused person’s mother received a phone call from a church member who resides in the same neighbourhood, that her daughter has come to his place of residence informing him that she had killed her family.”

When police visited the scene, they found the now deceased Edwin Chimbangu lying on the bed with a deep cut on the right ear, neck, right cheek and near right eye while 4-year-old Promise Chimbangu lying on top of a mattress with a deep cut injury on the back shoulder and several cuts on the right side of the head. also lay on the bed with her father with a deep cut on the right side of the head and right cheek and all dead.

Police said a metal digger which was used to commit the murder was recovered near the door with blood stains.

the woman’s blue dress had some had blood stains.

Her victims were conveyed to UBH for postmortem.