/ 14 February 1999

PLAYER DESCENDENT DEAD

BROTHERS Alex (37) and Elijah Ngirazi (23) on Friday admitted in a Zimbabwean court to murdering William Player, a great grandson of the man who founded the John Player tobacco dynasty. His body was found on Thursday, three weeks after he disappeared from his home outside the capital.”We have not positively identified him, but there is a 90% chance that the body is his,” police superintendent Wayne Bvudzijena said on Friday.Bvudzijena said a friend had identified the body, recovered with gunshot wounds from a nearby Mazowe river, but police still have to carry out fingerprint tests.Player, 64, went missing from his home in Christon Bank, on the outskirts of Harare, on January 20, where he lived alone.He was retired from the police and lived alone on a farm.