A 24-year-old Chitungwiza woman was on Saturday allegedly beaten to death by her husband following an altercation over a used condom she had found in his pockets while doing laundry.
Police confirmed the incident yesterday and said investigations were underway.
Police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi expressed concern over the increase in crimes of passion.
“The Zimbabwe Republic Police is investigating a case of suspected murder in which a 24-year-old female was found dead in her house in Chitungwiza.
“On 11 February 2017 at around 0100 hours, the now deceased had a quarrel with her 34-year-old husband over a used condom that she had found in one of her husband’s pockets while doing laundry,” she said.
Chief Supt Nyathi said on Sunday at around 8am, the informant who is the husband’s sister-in-law, and had heard the quarrel, went to investigate in the woman’s house after being attracted by an unpleasant smell.
“She opened the door and found the body under the bed facing downwards with a string around the neck, a swollen face and blood coming out of the mouth,” she said.
A report was then made to the police and the body was taken to a hospital mortuary for a post-mortem.
“The Zimbabwe Republic Police are disturbed that crimes of passion continue to rise in spite of our efforts to urge people to seek a third person for assistance, to settle down misunderstandings.
“We will, however, continue to emphasise that couples should not try to resolve such disputes on their own as in most cases, they end up worsening the situation,” Chief Supt Nyathi said.
The latest incident comes after at least 46 people were murdered in various parts of the country since the beginning of the year, with some of the cases due to crimes of passion and armed robberies.
This comes as the force and its counterparts in the region recently conducted research to analyse the nature and extent of murder crimes.
Of the 46 killed, 40 were murdered in January alone, while the other six were killed this month.
Police chief spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said the force was concerned with the murder cases.
She said a joint study conducted by Sadc countries to analyse the nature and extent of crimes of passion in the region indicated that in general; the majority of passion killing occur between a husband and wife.
Passion killing cases are as a result of infidelity, jealous, poverty, unequal power relations, drug abuse and cultural beliefs.
The 31-35 year age group was the most prominent in passion killing, with most perpetrators being men.
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