As a victim's laid to rest, police on the hunt for the man suspected of her murder.
|||As a KwaZulu-Natal woman is laid to rest today after she was raped, strangled and bound with cable ties, police will be on the hunt for the man suspected of her murder.
Police fear that the suspected rapist and murderer might be unleashing his trail of terror in the province after two women were found murdered in oThongathi.
Police have confirmed that the women, Phindile Ndlovu, 44, and Philisiwe Simelane, 42, were raped before they were strangled. Both bodies were found with their hands and feet bound with cable ties.
“While the modus operandi is the same, we can’t confirm that a serial rapist or murderer is on the prowl,” said police spokesman captain Thulani Zwane.
No arrests have been made. “But we are following a few leads,” said Zwane.
Simelane’s family was preparing for her funeral yesterday after her body was found in sugar cane fields in Manzamnyama, oThongathi.
Her sister, Eugenia Hlatshwayo, said the family, especially their mother, was still struggling to come to terms with the “callous and senseless” death. We’re just preparing for her funeral,” said Hlatshwayo, who was on her way to Newcastle yesterday.
She said that after searching for her sister for almost a week, the family found solace in news that “at least” her body was found.
Ndlovu’s family said they last saw her when she left her Embo, Hillcrest, home on June 8 to meet a friend she met on Facebook.
“She kept on speaking about a friend that she had met on Facebook and left that Saturday to go meet the friend,” said her mother, Albertina Ndlovu.
“I didn’t know whether the friend was male or female, but I just assume it was a woman,” said Albertina, adding that the friend had deposited transport money for her daughter.
When her daughter did not return home last Monday, she thought she had decided to spend the night at the friend’s place. However, she suspected that something was amiss when she was still not back the next day.
The family reported her missing. Their worst fears were confirmed when they received a phone call from police late last week, informing them that a body matching their daughter’s description had been found in a bush in oThongathi. “I don’t even know the name of this person that she met on Facebook, but when we last saw her she said she was going to meet the person,” she said.
Meanwhile, police are still working around the clock to try to catch two alleged rapists who have been terrorising women in Zululand and Durban.
Durban police are on the hunt for a man in KwaMashu after naked bodies of Nompumelelo Mdlalose, 31, and Thulisile Dlamini, 19, were found in C section last month.
Zululand police are still searching for a man believed to be in his late thirties and who poses as a security guard and may have already raped nine women.
Zululand police spokesman Inspector Mbongeni Mdlalose said the man used the same modus operandi to lure his victims, who were between 15 and 34 years old.
He apparently follows a woman into a shopping centre and takes a picture of her on his cellphone. He then follows her outside, claiming to be a security guard from the centre and says he needs to search the woman.
“He then takes the woman to a secluded area and rapes her,” said Mdlalose. -Independent On Saturday