The Sunday News
POLICE are conducting Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test to ascertain whether the body of a male juvenile aged around four years which was found burnt with missing body parts is that of a four-year-old boy from Mkoba Village 15, Gweru who has gone missing for two weeks.
Parents of Blessed Muringo failed to identify whether the body which was found in gum trees in a bushy area near Mkoba Village 20 recently by students from Top Class Private College which was burnt beyond recognition was that of their son.
This prompted the law enforcers to employ sophisticated methods of identifying the body and to ascertain whether the body was that of Blessed who went missing on June 12. DNA testing is a powerful tool for identification and has many practical applications. Common uses include, parental testing to establish if someone is the biological parent of a child or forensic testing to help identify suspects or victims in a criminal investigation.
Acting Midlands police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Ethel Mukwende confirmed that police were in the process of identifying the body to ascertain whether it was that of the missing lad and would also conduct postmortem to establish his cause of death.
“I can confirm that we are in the process of identifying the body using sophisticated methods apart from physical identification. We will also conduct postmortem to establish the cause of the death,” she said.
The body was discovered burnt beyond recognition with a damaged skull, while at advanced stage of decomposition, raising suspicions that it could be a ritual murder.
According to witnesses the boy’s body was found in the middle of gum trees in a bushy area near Mkoba Village 20 by students from Top Class private college during lunch time before alerting the college authorities who then reported the matter to the police.
A source said residents suspected that it could be that of Blessing Muringo of Mkoba Village 15 who went missing when he was left in the custody of a 13-year-old girl while her mother attended a church service.
When Sunday News visited the Muringo family, his parents had gone to Bulawayo for the tests. The tests would be done at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust).
