ICYMI: Couple's horrific murders eerily similar

Christine and Roger Solik, who were both murdered during a robbery at their home at Nottingham Road, in the Midlands. Picture: Independent Media

Christine and Roger Solik, who were both murdered during a robbery at their home at Nottingham Road, in the Midlands. Picture: Independent Media

Published Feb 21, 2017

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Durban – A family’s desperate plea for the safe return of their ailing father has ended in confirmation of a double tragedy, with the discovery of the 66-year-old’s body in a river a few kilometres away from where his wife’s body was found.

The body of Roger Solik was discovered on Monday by Pietermaritzburg Police Search and Rescue, three days after the body of his wife Christine was found 70km from their home.

It is believed the couple were murdered during a robbery in their home in an upmarket estate near Nottingham Road, in the Midlands.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane said 57-year-old Christine’s body was spotted by a passer-by in the Lotheni River in Nzinga, Impendle, on Friday.

“Her hands and legs were tied with wire and the head gagged with a pillow. She had also sustained an injury on the head.”

At the time, Roger was still missing and the family feared he had been kidnapped.

The family released a statement, desperately appealing for his safe return.

They wrote that they had received a call from Nottingham Road police notifying them of a robbery in their family home.

“We never thought we would ever have to write a letter like this to our fellow South Africans,” read the statement.

“Our father... has fought hard against Parkinson’s disease for 20 years. Daily medication is essential for his condition and no matter how mentally fit he is, without his medication he will become totally dysfunctional within 48 hours,” it read.

The family said in the statement that the couple were inseparable and their relationship was something to aspire to.

“It is hard to understand that on their community farmland estate, with rolling hills and endless nature, and neighbours 100m away, that something so violent could happen."

“Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.”

On Monday rain, mist and fog hampered the search by air but searches in the Lotheni River continued by canoe.

In the afternoon police noticed a brown object and discovered that it was a body.

It is understood that, like his wife, Roger’s hands and legs had been bound and a pillowcase pulled over his head.

He, too, had been badly beaten.

Zwane said the couple were reported missing after a concerned neighbour went to check on them and found the Solik home ransacked.

There were bloodstains in the house.

Clive Foos, chairperson of the Nottingham Road Landowners’ Association, who were actively involved in the search, said the community had rallied together to search for Roger.

“We are in shock, the level of aggression would rock any community."

“Why would they (perpetrators) turn so violent to achieve something as little as stealing a TV or a laptop?"

“The level of aggression against an older couple, a disabled man Were they targeted because they were easy targets? I mean how do you justify the brutality."

“How much more horrific death can there be than to be beaten and bound and thrown into a river?” asked Foos.

The family could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Police are still searching for suspects.

The Mercury

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