Pretoria family ‘gatvol’, planning to look for ‘dumped’ woman’s body themselves

A lengthy search by police has yielded no results, and the family of the missing woman plans to take matters into their own hands and find their loved one.


The family of missing Dawn Basdeo, of Brooklyn in Pretoria East, is planning a search for her body on Saturday.

This is according to a tweet from Yusuf Abramjee, who said the body was suspected to have been dumped west of Pretoria. The tweet by Abramjee suggests the husband confessed to the murder, which matches previous reports by the police.

Husband Prem Basdeo was arrested and charged for her murder. He applied for bail, which was denied in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court on July 26. The case resumes in court on September 28.

In one police statement read out in court, Prem allegedly admits to disposing of his wife’s body after she fell in the bathroom while they were having an argument.

Brooklyn police are still searching for Dawn’s body. Police spokesperson Captain Colette Weilbach said there were no new leads on the case and that any information from the public that may assist the police would be welcome.

Prem has taken police to several locations around Pretoria, but no body has been recovered.

Prem has also been charged with defeating the ends of justice and perjury for lying in his initial statement.

Dawn was last seen on June 8 at her home in Brooklyn, Pretoria. The missing persons information filed after her disappearance states that she left her house at about 9am on the day she went missing.

A breakthrough in the case was made when a silver grey 2007 Mercedes ML63 was found abandoned in Soweto. The car was allegedly used by Dawn at the time of her disappearance

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