Missing woman was never kidnapped

Marinda Labuschagne, who mysteriously disappeared from her post where she sells newspapers from, has been found alive and well and not kidnapped as first reported.

Read the initial article here: Koerantverkoper verdwyn spoorloos

Labuschagne used to sell Rapport newspapers each Sunday on various street corners in Witpoortjie until she went missing on 28 June. It was reported that she, along with her dog, was allegedly kidnapped.

Her husband, Hannes, went to great lengths to find his wife and even consulted a local Sangoma after reporting her as missing at the Krugersdorp police station.

However, on Saturday 1 August, Hannes found out that his beloved wife was not kidnapped, but rather took their dog and left him for good.

Marinda is now living in Vanderbijlpark with her new partner with whom she is expecting a baby.

“I can not believe this,” a broken Hannes said to the News.

Hannes says she has been ‘missing’ for a month now and is allegedly two months pregnant. The couple also has a son together.

Since then, he learned that Marinda met her new partner on Facebook and planned every detail of her so-called disappearance. Her main reason for leaving Hannes was because she found a wealthier man.

He has made contact with his estranged wife who claims that she is very content with her life right now, “I could not live in a shack any longer and I got so tired of constantly struggling”.

The couple’s son broke the bad news to his father after receiving a phone call from his mother more than a month after she disappeared.

However, it is believed that on the morning of her disappearance, Marinda contacted the driver of the newspaper van and told him that she is done with selling newspapers and denies claiming to have been kidnapped.

The dog that was with Marinda has since died after being hit by a car in Vanderbijlpark.

“My heart is broken. It is very difficult to deal with this,” Hannes said, who is now left behind to live in an informal settlement in Munsieville.