Missing father found to be N4 accident victim
After many desperate messages on Facebook, searching for their beloved father, a family from Mbombela found him in a KaBokweni mortuary.
A two-day search for her father ended in tragedy when they discovered he had been hit and killed by a vehicle on the N4.
While Lindie Schoeman was reporting her father as a missing person at the Nelspruit Police Station on Wednesday June 19, his body was lying in a mortuary in KaBokweni as a John Doe. Only after Schoeman posted a notice on Facebook about John Loock (54), who hadn’t come home on the Tuesday evening, did she receive a message from a woman in KaBokweni.
She told Schoeman the police were trying to identify a pedestrian who had been killed on the N4 near Karino.
Loock had been walking next to the highway on his way to his home on the Terblanche orange farm, where his wife, Susanna, was waiting for him. He was hit by a minibus taxi transporting members of a security company to Mbombela.
How it happened that Loock, who had been walking in the direction of oncoming traffic to ensure he was seen in the lights of oncoming vehicles, was hit, is still a mystery, says Schoeman.
“He was extremely safety-conscious and would never have taken a risk to cross a road if he wasn’t sure it was safe to do so. When he didn’t arrive home, my mother called to say she was worried about him. Frikkie and I drove from Maggiesdal on the R40/Barberton road along the N4 looking for him.”
Near Karino, they drove past an accident scene. “We stopped to enquire who the victim was lying covered under a blanket. We were told that the person did not match the description of my father.
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On the scene, I saw a yellow cap and a black shoe lying next to the road. The body was lying about 7m away in the middle of the road. The thought never even crossed my mind that it could be my father,” said an emotional Lindie.
Loock’s body was so mutilated in the accident that Frikkie could only identify him by his chest hair and some tattoos on his arms. On the left upper arm was a tattoo with the initial S (for Susanna) and on the right arm an L and D for Lindie and her sister Doreen.
“We are desperately looking for witnesses who might have seen the accident happen. Currently, the police only have the version of the driver and his passengers,” Lindie said.
Captain Magonseni Nkosi, the police’s spokesperson, said they are investigating a case of culpable homicide and reckless driving. Anyone with information may contact the police on 10111 (Nelspruit CAS 20/06/2024) or Lindie on 071 405 2542.
