Villagers in Gokwe, Zimbabwe were left shell-shocked last week after discovering that a local man’s corpse mysteriously vanished from his grave just days after his burial.

According to reports from local tabloid B-Metro, Gideon Fitshane was laid to rest last week after committing suicide. Much to his grieving wife’s anguish, his corpse mysteriously vanished from his grave.

The widow, Judith Fitshane told the publication that she got the shock of her life when she was informed that her late husband’s grave had been tampered with and that his body had disappeared.

‘My husband was found hanging from a tree after he was accused of committing rape. We buried him yesterday (Monday) but we were shocked when we went to check the grave to find it open with a deep hole. Upon further checking the elders that included assistant village head Justice Ncube discovered that the body of my husband was not there,’ she said.

‘This has left us shell-shocked because this is strange and it has never happened in our family and there were no footprints of people who could have taken his body. I cannot say much because this issue is now being handled by the late’s brothers and community leadership.’

Village head Justice Ncube confirmed the incident:

“We are shocked and at a loss for words as a community because we have never seen such an incident in our community. As per our tradition, we went to check the grave of our late fellow villager but we were shocked after we saw that his grave was tampered with. Upon further checking we discovered that his body was not there; the coffin was empty.”

He added: “He committed suicide after a relative had made a report to my court that he (the deceased) raped his niece and I instructed his family to make a report to the police since the matter was of a criminal nature. He (the late) then came to me to ask when his case would be heard at my court and I told him the matter had been referred to the police. I think he feared to be arrested as a result he decided to commit suicide.”

Ncube suspects two scenarios could be at play,  witchcraft or the deceased could have mysteriously left the grave since he died a bitter man.

‘There are about two scenarios here — there is a possibility that some witches could have come during the dead of the night and taken his body. The other probability is that since he died an angry man he could have risen and disappeared — such strange things happen especially if a person died a bitter person,’ he said.