Manchester Evening News
Tanyaradzwa Julius Matera was pronounced dead by paramedics at ten minutes past noon on December 8, 2023. His remains were hidden in Japanese knotweed on the edge of playing fields used by Broughton Cricket and Rugby Club in Salford.
But the truth was his life had ebbed away weeks earlier. He suffered catastrophic blood loss on the night of October 13 and 14 that year.
Known as Julius, he had been reported missing on October 24, but by then he had already been dead a week. It was 56 days later and in dramatic fashion that his body was found.
But an explosive inquest at Bolton coroners court heard how a wall of silence has meant his family have been denied justice in what they believe is a case of murder.
Julius, the court heard, was a functioning alcoholic whose life was in limbo as he waited years for a decision from immigration authorities on his request for permanent residence in the UK.
His status does not matter. His life was taken through violence in Higher Broughton and those responsible remain free. The answers to his demise lie in the Zimbabwean community in Salford of which he was a member.
For three years Greater Manchester Police has investigated the case. Three men have been arrested on suspicion of his murder but no one has been charged. All three have been released.
At an extraordinary inquest last week Coroner Tim Brennand described Julius, 43, as ” quite literally a gentle man”. He added: “Evidence that transcends everything is that each of the witnesses has spoken about what a helpful, and valued member of the community he was. He was very easy company.”
He said: “He was not violent, he was not someone looking for trouble,” but tellingly, he added, “he was not choosing his friends wisely.
Mr Brennand said he was satisfied Julius’ death “was not natural” and although events leading up to it were unclear, it was likely he was the subject of an “unwarranted and unlawful attack”.
He told the court: “Tissue dissection of the deceased’s neck revealed the presence of an incised wound likely to have been caused by a bladed instrument that caused a shallow stab type injury to cartilage of the thorax.”
This, he said, could be evaluated as having been sustained shortly before his death in an area that would have caused significant bleeding.”
He said evidence established that it was likely the wound was delivered in the garden area of 99 Great Cheetham Street West, an address occupied by three known associates of the deceased. The precise circumstances and causative consequences of the knife attack remain unclear.
He said the most likely explanation involved Julius being attacked by a “heavily intoxicated assailant, delivering a single blow having taken hold of a kitchen knife in a dispute with the deceased over a bottle of cider”.
The missing bottle of cider which it is believed lead to Julius’ death was later found. Julius, possibly fleeing from the attack, is thought to have collapsed as he crawled through dense vegetation on the other side of a wall at the rear of the house.
During three days of evidence at Bolton Coroner’s Court the most tense moments centred on a witness, Dorothy Wood. She claimed that on December 2, 2023, in the same house almost two months after Julius had been reported missing she had a conversation with resident, Bennett Benjamin Nkonjera.
She asked him if he knew anything about Julius going missing. He told the inquest his reaction was bizarre. She claimed he fell to his knees asking for forgiveness and told her he wanted to “wash away his sins” with salt water.
Mrs Wood said Mr Nkonjera told her Julius had been “chopped up” and re-enacted Julius being stabbed in the neck having picked up a knife.
She said there had been an argument over alcohol and mentioned two other the names of two other people.
Mr Nkonjera accused Mrs Wood of “making up” the incident and that he never discussed anything about Julius with her.
On December 4 Mrs Wood called police about the conversation and gave a statement on December 6. A day later officers searched 99 Greater Cheetham Street West and found Julius’ body lying less than ten yards from the the rear of the Victorian semi.
Mr Brennand said he found Mrs Wood a “wholly honest and reliable witness” whose evidence he “accepted entirely”. But he described Mr Nkonjera’s evidence as “unsatisfactory”, “fundamentally flawed” and “vague and inconsistent”.
Mr Nkonjera was one of three men arrested on suspicion of Julius’ murder. The other two were Josphat Mkonowatsauwg and Louis Chirimumvura. Each replied no comment to questions put to them by police.
No further action was taken against them by police. They all attended last week’s inquest but each said they did not know anything about Julius’s death.
But in response Mr Brennand said: “All three claim to know nothing. That is an exercise in wishful thinking”.
He called on GMP to review the case and raised his concerns about a conspiracy of silence around the case; that offenders may have been assisted; and that there may have been a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Reinvestigating the case will not be easy. Julius’s family said at the inquest that they felt some in the Zimbabwean community knew he was dead before his body was found.
Julius’s cousin, June, who was praised by the Coroner for the dignified way in which she conducted herself at the hearing, told the Manchester Evening News after the inquest: “I know there have been talks in the [Zimbabwean] community. There have been talks behind closed doors.
“It is time for people to come out into the open, be brave enough, be courageous. Julius was stripped…of all dignity… Now all we need is justice.”
Police face two barriers – fear of the killers and apathy. Julius sought company and friendship within a community with which he was naturally aligned.
Detective Inspector Rachel Smith said: “We know he was a regular visitor to that house. He knew people there. Some of the people who lived in the five flats were from the Zimbabwean community as were those that would come and go.
“I think people know what happened and they are scared to tell us. Or maybe they are protecting people in their own community.”
But at the inquest the wall of silence protecting the guilty showed signs of finally cracking.
A funeral service was at Peel Green Cemetery Eccles on Wednesday December 8, 2024, followed by burial.
In a message sent to the MEN just before the funeral, June Matera said: “It is sad and heartbreaking that Julius could not get the justice that he deserved. We pray that Julius’ soul rests in eternal peace and that one day justice will prevail. Time will tell.”
Julius was part of Salford’s cosmopolitan community. He had a tough life, but he remained a gentle, friendly man. The brutality which snuffed out his life must not go unpunished. There is a £50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible.
