Five women in Cape Town, one of them murdered last week, are thought to be victims of the man known as the alleged “Facebook rapist” and more cases are expected to surface, police say.
Police now fear the man they have been struggling to nail for months and who goes by the name Thomas Bester, one of 13 aliases, will continue scamming or hurting more women in Cape Town, Durban and Gauteng – the areas he has been operating in.
According to police, Bester, believed to be in his mid-20s, pretends to be a businessman and targets young women interested in modelling and television work.
Instead of getting them jobs, Bester either steals from them or stays at upmarket hotels with the women, but then leaves, leaving them to foot the bill, police say. In recent cases, he has allegedly raped and killed.
On Thursday, Lieutenant- Colonel Will Lombard of Durban police said he was aware that Bester had been linked to three Cape Town incidents involving five women.
Lombard said the latest Cape Town incident connected to Bester was the murder of 26-year-old Nomfundo Tyulu of Honeydew, Johannesburg.
Provincial police spokesman Andre Traut said Tyulu was found murdered in a guest house in Sunset Beach, Milnerton last Wednesday. She had been stabbed in the chest.
While he would not say if Bester was a suspect, Lombard said Bester was involved in the murder.
Lombard said, in a second Cape Town incident in mid-August, Bester had allegedly lured a model from Johannesburg to Cape Town, but she had managed to get away from him after realising who he was.
In the third local incident, Lombard said Bester lured three varsity students to the V&A Waterfront and stole their laptops. - Cape Times