Port Elizabeth – A Port Elizabeth policeman gave his account in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Monday, on how he tracked down the vehicle which was allegedly used to kidnap school teacher Jayde Panayiotou on April 21 last year.
The State alleges that after she was kidnapped, she was taken to a remote area on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle and shot twice through the back and once through the head.
Warrant Officer Johannes Botes testified on the ninth day in the ongoing murder trial against Christopher Panayiotou and his two-co-accused Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko.
In giving his evidence, Botes took the prosecution back to the day he visited ZEMS car rental and was told by the owners’s wife that the alleged triggerman Sizwezakhe Vumazonke had hired vehicles from the business.
Botes said a silver VW Polo was ruled out as the alleged kidnapping car as the vehicle had been hired by Vumazonke after April 21 2015.
However, Botes said that ZEMS system showed that Vumazonke hired a vehicle during the time in which the school teacher was kidnapped and killed.
He said a tracking system was fitted onto the white Toyota Etios and together with the owner’s wife he went through the driver’s movements for April 21, the day Jayde was abducted outside her Stellen Glen Complex in Deacon Road, Kabega Park.
“We followed the record from Kanobuhle to Kwazakhele..it showed us bit by bit but not places he stopped for a long time, at [Jayde’s] residence he was driving around in the vicinity..where they [allegedly] picked up [Jayde] they drove a back road to Rocklands. We followed the route up until the first gravel road where he turned left,” he told the court.
He said it was at this stage that the ZEMS owner became very emotional and stated that Vumazonke’s next move must of been Kwanobhule.
“I tried to calm her down,” said Botes.
“At the farm where the deceased was murdered, I said now he is going to turn right. [She] began to cry, saying that her car had been used to murder the deceased.”
Botes told the prosecution that the tracking information provided by ZEMS was sufficient enough to establish that the white Toyota Etios had been used in Jayde’s alleged kidnapping.
Defence Advocate Terry Price asked for an adjournment in order to prepare for Botes cross-examination.
He said that most of Botes evidence in chief was not visible in his statement to police.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
African News Agency