By A Correspondent | ZimEye | A Harare man who allegedly killed his 12-year-old neighbour in cold blood in a chilling murder appeared in court Tuesday charged with murder.

Panashe Mukura, 31, from Eastview, appeared before Harare magistrate Ruth Moyo, who remanded him in custody after advising him to seek bail at the High Court.

It is alleged that he killed his neighbour’s child, Don Keith Jon, before cutting off his privates and burying him in a shallow pit in his parents’ garden.

Mukura was advised to seek bail at the High Court.

According to the State, on July 5, 2025, the mother of the deceased left her son with his maternal grandfather.

On that fateful night, Mukura went and took the boy and requested to sleep with him at the deceased mother’s place of residence, safeguarding the house as the mother was away.

“During that night, the accused woke up and took a pair of scissors and stabbed the deceased on the neck and went on to cut the deceased’s private parts and left them hanging.

“The accused further took a comb and poked him on the nose, and the deceased bled.

“The accused dragged the deceased outside the house and half-buried him in the garden which is behind the house,” reads court papers.

The offence came to light the following morning, on the 6th of July 2025, when the accused went to the maternal grandfather of the deceased and informed him that the boy had gone missing.

They informed other neighbours and proceeded to the mother of the deceased’s place of residence.

The grandfather and the neighbours noted that there were blood stains at the doorstep, and they checked the accused and noted that he also had blood stains on his clothes.

They searched outside the house and discovered that the accused had half-buried the deceased in the garden.

A police report was made, leading to the arrest of the accused person.

Takudzwa Jambawu prosecuted.