Shock Death As Man Commits Suicide In City Centre
18 April 2017
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Mystery surrounds the death of a Bulawayo man who allegedly plunged to his death from a 13-storey building that houses police officers in the city centre.

His family insists he may have been murdered while police are investigating a case of suicide.

Police officers found Craig Phiri (21), of Tshabalala suburb, dead on a fire escape on the ground floor at African Life Building, also known as Southampton Building, on Thursday around 8PM.

A family source said his mother was the last person to see him alive when he left the house two hours earlier.

Mr Russel Phiri, Craig’s brother, yesterday told The Chronicle a post-mortem was inconclusive on the cause of death.

He said the family was bothered about “inconsistencies” surrounding Craig’s death.

“As far as we know, he doesn’t know anyone at that building. His name wasn’t even recorded at the visitors’ register downstairs. We wonder how he gained entry into that closely guarded building,” said Russell.

The family, Russel said, needed closure by getting to the bottom of how his brother ended up dead at the building.

“If there is anyone who can come out and give information on the last person he talked to and what he was doing at the building, it would help us as a family,” he said.

Another family member who declined to be named said Craig’s phone was found on his body with all the contacts and call history deleted.

“Only his mother’s number was left on the phone. Even the call history and messages were all deleted. We just feel like there is more to what could have transpired. On Thursday he told his mother he wanted to get some things in town and left around 6PM. He told her he wouldn’t be gone for long although he didn’t specify what his business was,” said the source.

The source said police were able to trace Craig’s next of kin at around 1AM, about five hours after they had found his body.

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Precious Simango said:

“I can confirm that a man was found dead around 8PM on Thursday night last week at Southampton Building in the central business district in a suspected suicide case. We urge members of the public to desist from committing suicide. People should try and seek help when they are facing challenges rather than taking their own lives.”

Craig was buried at West Park Cemetery in Bulawayo yesterday. – State Media

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  • Fuseki

    Ok, the man died under suspicious circumstances and the beautiful Simango is already giving suicide advice. kkkk ZRP is a joke!

    Perhaps he was having a nice time with someone wife? How else would he gain entry into the cop building?

  • laba labo

    I am always amused by the advice that the so called police spokespersons give after a tragedy has occurred. Seriously should they be consoling the family of the bereaved of man who died right in their premises?

  • Doctor Do little

    If the Police have CCTV footage and then they can call this suicide. Again the statement should be “Investigations are in progress.” If we have any people in the ZRP that do investigative work in these kind of situations and then it would take them longer than three days to investigate this bearing in mind that they need to establish 1) what he was doing there 2)does he know anyone in the building 3) how did he get in 4) how accessible is the building. Have they interviewed his friends?Have they tried to find out his financial situation? Did he have a girl friend that let him down? You then get this lady repeating like a parrot the same thing overs and overs. Something is not right here. If the Family sense it you have to take them seriously. The coroner released the body too soon. If he was pushed or grabbed the likelihood is that when the blood seizes to flow that particular area a person is grabbed or shoved will be appear in a corps as an internal bruise. If you hold a persons wrists tightly and he dies shorty after that because you restricted his blood flow that particular area will show up like an internal bruise which in this case would be appearing as an area of discoloured skin on the body, caused by pressure rupturing underlying blood vessels. This is simple forensics that can be visible to even a Layman. Has all this been checked out? Again a premature statement from the Police. If a postmortem was inconclusive on the cause of death something is not right.

  • Kunzima Emhlabeni

    In 2013, my uncle was found with his neck cut. Beheaded in his idling car. He was on his way to work. He died at a set of robots in Harare and the police said in was suicide. My question was how can they say its suicide when noone knows for sure? Again, his car would automatically lock all doors upon reaching 20km/hr. On this day, apparently the doors didn’t auto-lock. And the police didnt break the car doors or use spare keys to remove his body. Once police say its suicide, thus end of investigation and they close the case. Im telling you readers about our family tragedy so that you can realise that there are lots of mysterious deaths in Zimbabwe. We live with our pain and with no closure. Sad loss indeed and i say to the bereaved, find comfort in God. Kunzima.