ONE of the 21 victims of the April Megalink coach accident along Masvingo-Beitbridge road remains unburied after a cheeky thief conned police into giving him money provided by the bus company and the government for her burial.

The woman’s body is still lying unclaimed at a funeral parlour in Harare nearly two-and-a-half months after the horror crash although the other 20 victims have since been buried.

Megalink Bus Company provided US$510 as funeral assistance for each victim while the government chipped in with US$200.

But police released the money to a man who claimed to be Allen Mapuranga and a brother of the deceased woman, Loice Mapuranga of Unit B, Seke in Chitungwiza.

Megalink Bus Company gave him the US$510 and he then proceeded to collect the other US$200 from Masvingo District Administrator’s office before vanishing.

“We have since discovered that the suspect who is at large stole one Allen Mapuranga’s identity card, which he claimed to be his before he managed to convince police who had set up a temporary base at Masvingo General Hospital that one of the deceased woman was her sister. The suspect disappeared soon after collecting the money,’’ Masvingo police spokesperson Inspector Tineyi Matake said adding the suspect was still at large.

Inspector Matake said police later established that the deceased woman was in fact not Loice Mapuranga and appealed to members of the public missing a female relative to approach their nearest police station.