"He is my husband. Please give me his body, I want to give him a dignified funeral." That is the sad plea made by Ms Sarah Nemauluma, whose husband vanished without trace almost a year ago.

Almost a year after a headless body was found in a pit toilet, she has claimed that the body is her husband’s.

Nemauluma (55) of Sheshe in the Khakhu area claims she has positively identified her husband’s body at a police mortuary, but the police are refusing to release the body, saying that her identification is inconclusive.

Nemauluma’s woes started last year when her security guard husband vanished without a trace from his place of employment at Matavhela in Mutale. He has not been seen ever since. Joseph Nemauluma (58) disappeared in July 2007. "He used to come back home during his day off and we were expecting him as we knew his leave days, but he never arrived," she said.

She said days after his disappearance she discovered that he was having an extra-marital affair with a woman at Phiphidi. "When he did not arrive, we assumed that he might have visited his new lover, but after some days of not hearing from, him we decided to go to his work place to enquire," she said. "We were very surprised to learn that he had not reported for work days after his day off had elapsed. We decided to confront the new lover about his whereabouts," she said.

She said the lover confirmed that he had visited her but had left for work. "I could feel it in my body that something very terrible had happened to my husband. He was not the type who would just disappear without telling us where he was going to," said the sad Nemauluma. "We decided to open a missing person docket with the police, while at the same time trying to locate him," she said. She said the Phiphidi community was very sympathetic towards her as they joined her in the search until a bag with clothing, bank cards and an identification card was found near a dam in the village. The items were identified as his.

"Some days after the bag with clothing was found, we received a call from the Mutale police informing us of a body that had been found in a toilet pit at the local graveyard," she said. Nemauluma said that even though the body was in an advanced state of decomposition, she could still recognize it as her husband’s body. "The other thing that convinced me was that his private parts were still intact and resembled his own. After going through the pains of identifying our loved one, the police still refused to release the body. They were saying our identification was inconclusive and they needed to do some DNA tests, which we did not refuse," she said. "They promised us that the tests would only take two weeks, but we were made to wait for two months. Those two weeks of my life turned into months of waiting; it was really painful," she said. She said worse was to come when she was called to the station, only to be told that the results were negative and they were to do more tests. Blood samples were taken from us and the results were negative once again.

"I have positively identified my husband and I do not even know why they are putting us through all this. Why do I have to go through all the pain when I am the one who knows my husband better than their tests?" she asked. His body was also found without clothing as his clothing was found in Phiphidi.

"Please release his body so that I can give him a decent funeral. His spirit will never be at rest until I give him the prescribed traditional last rites and a dignified burial," she said. Nemauluma said she has accepted that her husband is dead but is bothered by the fact that his body has been lying at the mortuary for a long time. "What has his corpse done to deserve this? We need his bones for burial so that future generations will have a place to go and see as their relative’s grave," she said.

Nemauluma says the fact that no one has come forward to claim the body all these months is further proof that it is her husband. To add to her woes, no one seems to care about her husband’s disappearance, as even the colleagues with whom he worked never bothered to visit her or help her search for him. "I expected support from his employers but they did not bother at all. Not even the investigating officer had visited or informed us about any developments in the case," she said. All Nemauluma is left holding now are papers for a missing person docket, not a death certificate. "This is putting a lot of strain on the family as we cannot even access anything that belonged to him. He has not been declared dead even though we positively identified his body. We do not know what to do; please help us," she pleaded.

Mutale police spokesperson, Insp Tshilidzi Nyambeni said they tried their best to assist her. "Two tests involving the man’s mother and children were done, but they all came back negative. We also sent her to the magistrate to apply for a presumption of death certificate and there is nothing more we can do for her," he said. Nyambeni added that a human head was found at the vicinity of where the man’s belongings were found and was taken for forensic testing. "We are awaiting results for the tests and we will inform the family if turns out to be his head," he said.

He appealed to members of the public who might have information about the disappearance of this man to come forward.