The mystery of a charred body found on top of a burnt-out bakkie belonging to Lolly Jackson’s lawyer Ian Jordaan has grown after a claim that the murdered man’s teeth had been “smashed out”.
This claim was reported in City Press on Sunday.
Although the body was found on Jordaan’s bakkie, police said on Monday that they had yet to confirm the identity.
The unanswered questions:
l Was the man burnt to try to hide his identity?
l If so, why was no attempt made to hide the ownership of the bakkie, which still carried intact number plates?
l Were the teeth smashed to prevent identification through dental records?
l Was the bakkie set alight to prevent a DNA match?
On Monday, forensic expert Dr David Klatzow said it would be very difficult to “smash out” a full set of teeth. If no teeth were left, it probably meant they were pulled out.
City Press reported that a scan of the charred body had shown that there were no teeth left, and “there was considerable damage to the mouth. He was probably dead when the body was set alight.”
Klatzow said: “
The only reason someone would have to pull out a person’s teeth is to try to hide the identity of the body.”
The body could still be identified through the dental root system if there were previous dental X-rays, since people often had unique root systems, or through DNA tests.
“This can be done on any piece of the body that was not charred. Often the best part to take DNA from is the bone marrow at the bottom of the spinal area,” Klatzow said.
He said it would take a private forensic expert 16 hours to identify the body.
State labs could take eight years, he added.
National police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini has refused to comment on the City Press report about the teeth, or to confirm or deny the information.
Dlamini said that before the police could confirm the story, they would need the autopsy report from the Department of Health.
He would not say how long the report would take, even though it has been a week since the corpse was found.
While this information would probably be known to the investigating officer, the officer would also have to wait for the report, Dlamini added. - Pretoria News