By Paul Nyathi

A Gweru man has been arrested after a gruesome murder of his aunt who called him a homosexual.

The 34 year old man struck his 53 year old aunt several times on the head and body with the axe and left her dead near the Apostolic Faith Mission church in Southdowns suburb in the Midlands capital.

Midlands acting provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Ethel Mukwende confirmed the gruesome murder.

Family members told that Chona Fernandos had an argument with her aunt, Julie Davidets, over the volume of a television set resulting in her calling him a jail bird who was exposed to homosexuality while in prison.

Speaking to news reporters at the family home, Chona’s mother and sister to Julie, Ms Elizabeth Davidets said her son and younger sister had a long history of fighting even over petty issues.

She said on the day the two had a heated argument on the volume of the television before Chona threatened Julie with an axe.

“These two have a long history of fighting everyday and always over minor things. On Tuesday afternoon, Chona was watching TV and Julie complained that the volume was very high. Julie went on to reduce the volume while Chona was watching a programme resulting in a serious argument and they started swearing at each other,” she said.

“Julie called Chona a jail bird and accused him of being a homosexual since he had served some time in jail. That angered Chona and he took an axe and attempted to strike Julie with it. Chona accused her of treating him differently from the other children,” she said.

Ms Davidets said she managed to stop the fight before Julie left the house threatening to report Chona to the police. Chona followed her and killed her in the bushy area before she reached the police station.

“While l was still at home, my neighbour Ruth called me and said something bad had happened. She took me to the scene and l saw Julie lying in a pool of blood. She was already dead and my son was nowhere to be found,” she said.

Ms Davidets said the matter was reported to the police leading to her son’s arrest.