Multiple murders being investigated with similar modus as Hetta Potgieter’s
Two other murders with a similar modus operandi as Hetta Potgieter's occurred in other old-age homes around the country.
MBOMBELA – This was confirmed when police revealed in court this week that they are investigating other cases which could be linked.
Shaun Oosthuizen (38), Maryna Mandy Vorster (48) and John du Plooy (26) are accused of the murder and robbery of Potgieter who was killed on Sunday July 8 in Macadamia Care Centre.
She was found with her hands tied behind her back. A cloth was stuffed into her mouth and another wrapped around it. Her flat had been ransacked.
Police stated she had been robbed of R10 000 and her safe key was taken.
Philip Brand, the son of Engela van Wyk (86) who was murdered on Sunday June 26, spoke to Lowvelder regarding the similarities between his mother’s case and Potgieter’s. She was found suffocated in her home at Rus-n-Bietjie Old Age Home in Springs.
He said witnesses had seen two men entering her flatlet. “Her home was right in the middle of the village.”
Van Wyk was found in her room with her hands bound to her bed. A cloth was stuffed inside her mouth and another wrapped around it. The flatlet had been ransacked. Her jewellery, rings and a cellphone were taken and the key.
“My mother did not deserve to die like this. We were puzzled, as there had never been any problems at the old-age home.”
He added that she must have opened the door for the perpetrators, as there was no forced entry. “I heard from the other tenants that two men were asking to use the bathroom.”
A police source revealed that they were investigating more robbery cases and a murder of a 92-year-old woman which happened on December 5, 2015 on the eighth floor of an aged home in Sunnyside, Pretoria.
She was discovered in her flat, tied with her hands behind her back and a cloth stuffed down her throat with another wrapped around her mouth. She was found locked in her cupboard and barely alive after two days. The woman died a week later in hospital. Her flat had also been ransacked and some items were reported stolen.
