AN Umbilo man watched helplessly as a woman was abducted by a group of men in the early hours of Saturday morning. Her body was later found in Stellawood Cemetery. She had been raped and suffocated.
According to the man, who asked not to be named, he was getting married on the day and had been up from 4am sorting out the music list for the reception.
He said he had turned on his CCTV camera outside his house at around 5am, and as the footage came up he saw a car drive down the road near the intersection of Bottomley and Bartle Roads, and he heard screaming and a commotion outside.
“One of the men was trying to push a woman in the car, which was a new model white BMW. I got a stick from my room and ran out of the house towards them, shouting. I could see there were four men in the car, but they drove off with her feet dangling out of the vehicle, while one of the men was still trying to pull her in,” he said. The man said he had realised if he pursued the men, it may have ended in a fight which could have placed him in danger too. He said he had relayed the incident to a local community watch.
The resident said he was very saddened by the fact that he was probably the last person, other than the men, to see her alive.
“I feel very sad about it. If I had known what was going to happen to her, I would have tried to do more,” he said.
He said he hadn’t managed to record the footage, as he would have had to press a button on his CCTV camera to do so, and had rushed out of the house as soon as he had heard the woman screaming.
According to Capt Pumzile Makaula from Umbilo SAPS, police were called to the Stellawood Cemetery at around 4pm on Saturday where the woman was found lying half naked on the ground covered by a black plastic bag.
“The woman was between 25 and 30 years old. She had been raped and suffocated with the black bag between 6am and 3pm,” she said.
She said police are investigating a case of murder.
If anyone has any information on the incident or the identity of the woman, they are to contact Det W/O Ganas on 031 319 5100.
