HARARE – Four Harare men have been arrested on allegations of digging nearly 380 graves and dumping the corpses buried there inside a river.

Police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi revealed in a statement on Thursday the arrest of Edwin Muronzi, Tinashe Chiguma, 32, Moses Gwanya, 19, and Kudakwashe Humure, 21 in connection with the bizarre offences committed at Restland Memorial Park, Rainham between 2015 and 2024.

The scandal came to light on Wednesday when police arrested Chiguma after he had made a report claiming he was “experiencing visions of dead people requesting to know the whereabouts of their relatives”.

Chiguma, according to police, implicated his employer, Muronzi, Gwanya and Humure, leading to their arrest.

Initial police investigations revealed that Muronzi “employed grave diggers at the cemetery including the suspects and others who are on the run and paid them between US$15 and US$20 per every grave”.

Nyathi added, “The grave diggers allegedly received instructions from Edwin Muronzi to dig the graves to pave way for new graves and subsequent burials.

“In the process, they would come across human skeletal remains which they would pack in empty cement bags before wrapping them in clothes used during burial and disposing them in a trench or a dam behind the cemetery. They would also dispose of the traditional artifacts buried with the bodies.

“Edwin Muronzi and his team would then resale the graves to new clients to bury their late relatives without suspecting anything after cleaning and rearranging the used graves.”

The police spokesperson said specialists from the ZRP Forensic Science unit have been drafted in to assist with investigations into the matter.

Nyathi said investigations were aimed at “identifying the graves which were tempered with, to identify the bodies through their relatives and the whole area where the illegally exhumed bodies and artifacts were being dumped”.

Police further appealed to anybody with information that may lead to the arrest of the remaining suspects only identified as Kevy, Shumba and Dread.