NELSPRUIT – A murder suspect accompanied police this afternoon to point out where the body of a 25 year-old male was. The man’s body was retrieved in a river near the N4 in a joint operation by members of the police, K9 Unit, diving division and the Off Road Rescue Unit Nelspruit, plus members of a security company.
Lowvelder joined the group to retrieve the body. The dense overgrown bush had to be hacked through with a panga to get to the river where the group found the badly decomposed body of the victim. An hand and a foot was missing from the victim’s body.
According to Capt Pottie Potgieter of the SAPS diving division, the local community near the river had contacted the police about the victim’s disappearance. He said they had initially arrested three suspects but only one suspect had known about the victim.
He said the suspect said him and the victim had apparently shared a house near the river. He said while they were walking near the river, the victim had fallen into the river and he apparently saved him but had come out coughing and retching water.
“The suspect said the victim had gone home and then got into his bed as he wasn’t feeling well, but then had defecated in his bed but promised to clean it the next morning. He said the following morning the suspect apparently found that the victim was dead and as he was angry that he had messed his room, the threw the body in the river.”
He also said the victim’s body had been in the water since January 10.
Potgieter stated that forensics would establish exactly what the cause of death was after a post-mortem had been done to establish if the suspects statement was true.
