A suicide note allegedly left by nurse Lyliosa Chirara has reportedly fuelled tensions between her family and that of her husband, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) Commissioner Martin Muduva.
Chirara, 43, allegedly hacked Muduva, 42, to death with an axe at their home in Dzivarasekwa Extension following a marital dispute, before taking her own life shortly afterwards.
The note was said to have been discovered while her belongings were being packed ahead of her burial in Njanja.
In line with traditional custom, her clothes and other personal items were to be placed in her grave.
During the packing process, a group of women reportedly found the note stashed among her clothes alongside other documents, and read it before mourners gathered in Dzivarasekwa Extension.
Nancy Tembo, a close friend of Lyliosa, told H-Metro:
“We discovered the suicide note while packing her belongings in preparation to go to Njanja for burial.
“After informing the Muduva family about the note, they did not want it read, but the Chirara family read it.
“That caused more discord, and we left the house in a huff as some Muduva family members had been angered by some members of Chirara’s family.”
Tembo added that no members of the Muduva family witnessed Chirara’s burial.
A close relative, who asked not to be named, said the couple had explored the possibility of divorce.
National police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi said investigations were ongoing.
“The Zimbabwe Republic Police is yet to see the suicide note reported to have been left by the deceased,” he said.
“Police are investigating the murder and sudden death by suicide cases in Dzivarasekwa Extension.”
In the note, Chirara wrote that when she married Muduva, she had vowed “till death do us part,” and that she had meant exactly that when she promised their marriage would only end in death.
She began by asking her relatives for forgiveness for what she had done, saying she had been driven to it by years of torment and suffering.
“I have done this because of being tormented and the suffering I have endured for a long time and the distress I have suffered,” she wrote.
“Admittedly, many think that I have peace of mind, but that’s not true, and I have only been suffering all my life while my husband was lying to people that he has a lot of love for me, while he doesn’t have any. All he was doing was making me suffer.”
Chirara alleged that her husband had not shared a bedroom or been intimate with her between 2022 and 2025, claiming he believed his PhD meant he should not have to be with a wife he considered uneducated.
She also alleged that he had kept his earnings from her, telling her she had no right to know how much he made, and he discouraged her from starting a small business to sell chickens and eggs.
She further alleged that Muduva had spent a year living with another woman before returning to tell her he had found a wife more befitting his status — one who understood technology and could accompany him to public functions.
Chirara said she had only learned of his secret marriage to the other woman after seeing a social media post about the couple’s roora (bride price) ceremony.
“Understandably, you can say that I got it wrong in terms of my thinking, but forgive me — I have been made to suffer for a very long time. Let me rest now,” she wrote.
She said that on the day of the killing, her husband had told her she was no longer the right wife for him.
“Forgive me, my relatives, I have taken the wrong decision, but I have done it because of the suffering that I have endured. Leave me to rest,” Chirara allegedly wrote.
Referring to the couple’s children, she wrote: “My kids, they don’t know anything. Yes, I wanted to see them grow, but I would still have died because of stress. Sorry, I have failed.”
Chirara repeatedly referenced Patience Mangwiro, the woman she alleged Muduva had secretly married, writing that she hoped Mangwiro would now be happy, “because all she wanted was to destroy my marriage with Martin.”
She reiterated her earlier vow that their union would only end in death: “This is the death that I meant.”
Addressing her own mother and the wider Muduva family, she wrote that she knew she had caused them pain, but asked for their forgiveness, saying the letter had been written “with tears streaming down my cheeks.”
She told the Muduva family they could now “take Patience Mangwiro, the one you went to marry secretly,” describing her as “the right daughter-in-law” who was educated and could care for the family’s needs.
Chirara also addressed a family elder directly, referred to as “Babamukuru Baba vaPhilip,” whom she accused of having encouraged Muduva to seek a more educated wife and of failing to intervene in her marital problems, despite intervening in arrangements for Muduva’s marriage to Mangwiro. She closed the note by asking him to take care of her children.
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