The remains of a human being were found in a shallow grave.
While out collecting recyclable items a man came upon a set of bones and notified the Witbank Police.
On the morning of September 29 police headed out to the field along Mandela Street and swiftly cordoned off the area.
The skeleton appeared to have been given a shallow grave, in fact the trench it was found in was roughly 20cm deep.
It was evident that the body had undergone complete decay as only the skeleton remained. It is suspected that the body remained hidden due to the area once being covered in long grass, a recent field fire exposed where the body had been buried.
Police spokesperson, Capt Eddie Hall said on scene
“The teeth will aid forensics in identifying the body. When the Pathology Department recovers the skeleton it will be taken to Pretoria for testing.”
Captain Eddie Hall inspects the scene where the skeleton was found.
At time of print it was indiscernible whether the remains were that of an adult or child, male or female.
“The labs will do DNA testing and a facial reconstruction using the skull to ascertain whether it was a male or female and how old it was. Our top priority right now is to determine who the person was and their cause of death,” said Capt Hall.
Police pathologist, Mr Corrie Pieters said that the case is currently under investigation at this point in time and that no details of the skeleton could be released.
A skeleton was found in the field next to Mandela Street.
“We will investigate whether it was a shallow grave or not. In general if a body is buried in less than a metre then it is more susceptible to decomposition,” said Pieters.
According to studies decomposition in the air is twice as fast as when the body is under water and four times as fast as underground. A corpse left above ground is rapidly broken down by insects and animals. A corpse can become a moving mass of maggots within days, even hours in hot climates.
The duration it takes for a dead body to decompose depends on various factors including the depth the body was buried at, if buried at all, climate, temperature, humidity and acidity of the soil.
