Shurugwi – Midlands police have arrested a 26-year-old woman who allegedly gave birth before burying the baby in a shallow grave in a nearby river.
Police say Oliviah Chikwata of Makopa Village under Chief Ndanga in Shurugwi had concealed the pregnancy and killed the baby to maintain a lie.
Chikwata is said to be originally from Taona Village under Chief Nhema also in Shurugwi and had travelled to stay with her 77-year-old Aunt at Makopa Village when she was six months pregnant but kept her condition secret.
“On September 21, 2018, the accused gave birth to a baby boy and went to bury the baby in the nearby Gwamurachena River. Thereafter she dug a small pit where she buried the baby,” according to an internal police memo seen by ZimLive.
On September 23, a villager who had gone to take a bath in the river found bloodied clothes stuffed in a cave near the river. The clothes led investigators to Chikwata.
Police in Donga in the same area retrieved the baby’s body and took it to Zvamabande Hospital mortuary awaiting post-mortem.
