Cape Town – A family is seeking answers after a relative was brutally murdered. Alfonso Petersen, 22, was killed on Sunday, January 29, while working in Macassar.
The Tafelsig man left for work on Sunday morning, but never made it home.
His father, Lionel Petersen, 60, believes his son knew his killers and fought them off.
“Alfonso worked with his three colleagues on Sunday, as he did for the past four years,” he says.
“He was always jolly and never complained about having issues at work.
“The colleagues aren’t telling us the truth about his murder, everyone has a different story to tell.”
Peatrice Langeveld, 64, says her nephew was gruesomely murdered.
“The colleagues said they were attacked when stopping at a robot in Macassar,” she explains.
“We heard there was a group of guys looking for a lift, but the driver refused and they jumped onto the back of the Hilux bakkie.
“They said the guys only attacked Alfonso, using a spade.
“But when we saw his body, there were holes in his neck and compost in his mouth and inside the gush in his neck.
“A garden fork they work with was dripping with blood and the compost on the bakkies had pieces of Alfonso’s brain and blood on it.”
She finds the behaviour of the colleagues “strange” after the murder.
“The hospital report shows he was dead at 4pm, but the colleagues only came to tell us at 7pm.
“They were crying without tears and one just stood at the door saying nothing.”
“The police let his colleagues go without questioning them, they went home with the blood soaked work tools and bakkie covered in blood. Weren’t they supposed to use that as evidence?”
The family says they are having difficulty laying Alfonso to rest, because they can’t find his identity document.
“His body is lying in the morgue for a week and four days now.
“We can’t bury Alfonso because we don’t have his ID.
“Tygerberg Hospital says it costs R1200 to do a DNA test so we can claim the body.”
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel André Traut confirmed a murder is under investigation.
“The circumstance surrounding the case are still under investigation.”