Benoni SAPS spokesperson Lieut Nomsa Sekele said Vandekeere’s mother’s funeral was held at the Northfield Methodist Church, on Tuesday, April 7.
It is unclear what she died of.
The City Times received information that the police were not at the funeral service, and that the accused was not present either.
Vandekeere has been on the run since September 9, after failing to appear in the Delmas High Court.
There were reported sightings of him at an airport in Maputo, in November, 2013.
He is accused of raping and murdering Chantelle Barnard, in Brentwood Park, on April 1, 2011, after she went missing earlier that day.
The victim’s mother, Suzette Barnard, senses that the man who, she said, “hurt” her daughter, is present in the area.
The mother said she misses her daughter “who did not deserve to die”.
Every day of my life, when I wake up, she is the first thing on my mind,” said Barnard.
“… It makes me sad that she was taken from me.
“I wonder what she would be today.”
Police are still searching for Vandekeere.
