By Greame Hoskens
Crime Reporter
A Pretoria pensioner, who fought and survived both World War 2 and the Korean War as a fighter pilot, was found bludgeoned to death at his home.
Frans Swemmer, 89, was found dead in the garage of his Waterkloof home yesterday morning by his girlfriend of 14 years, Anita Stander, 71.
Stander discovered Swemmer's badly battered body lying sprawled in the passage of his Orion Street home where he had been dragged from the garage.
'When I spoke to them later they said they could not see anything that was suspicious'
A blood trail and a brown leather shoe outside the front door indicated from where Swemmer's killers had dragged him into his house.
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It is believed that Swemmer, whose white Mercedes-Benz, pistol, clothes and household appliances were stolen, was beaten on the head with a sledgehammer at about 7pm on Thursday night after he went to investigate the theft of beers from his fridge in the garage.
Within hours of Swemmer's body being found yesterday, police arrested a man driving his car in Hammanskraal.
Word of a suspect's arrest quickly spread throughout Orion Street as neighbours and friends telephoned one another to tell of the arrest.
A neighbour, who declined to be named, said he hoped the police would "kill the bastard".
Sitting on the grass pavement outside Swemmer's home as police forensic investigators searched for clues, Stander said the last time she spoke to Swemmer was when he had telephoned her at 6pm to say that thieves had stolen his beers.
While police took fingerprints from a black palisade fence outside the home, Stander described what she saw when she found Swemmer's body. "I could not believe it. It was awful. How could someone do that to a person who was so kind and caring? It is absolutely humiliating and degrading to die like that," she said.
Stander said she had become worried when Swemmer's neighbour and close friend, Martie Kotze, 76, telephoned her on Thursday night to tell her that something was wrong at Swemmer's house.
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