Cape Town - A Western Cape community is reeling in shock after a seven-month pregnant mom of three’s badly bruised and half-naked body was found dumped in a field.
The battered body of Liezel Wagner, 33, was discovered just after 9am on Thursday in Sherwood Park, Atlantis.
Witnesses who found the body say she was laying on her back with her knees in the air. And her face was completely swollen and bruised. She was only dressed in an orange T-shirt.
Late on Thursday night, Liezel’s distraught family were meeting with detectives and said they were not available to speak to the media.
Meanwhile, community leaders, friends and witnesses say the murder is even more chilling because it bares the same hallmarks as another chilling double murder.
Fifteen-month-old Tatum Louw and her 18-year-old mother Marshay Louw were found dead in the same field in April.
The infant and young mother’s corpses were already decomposing.
On Thusrday, 23-year-old Brad Hansen was still in a state of shock when he recalled finding the body.
“I was with friends and we were going to wash a taxi and my one friend left to fetch a sponge,” he said.
“I looked over the wall [of my house] and that’s when I saw the body of a woman. I then told a neighbour to call the police.”
Liezel’s friend, who asked not to be named, said a friend told her to contact the police.
Once she arrived at the scene, she was left sick to her stomach at the sight of the battered body.
“There were blue marks in her face,” the 33-year-old said. “She was laying on her back and her knees and legs were in the air and you could see she was pregnant.
“I noticed it was Liezel when I saw the auburn streaks in her hair and the zombies [bangles] on her arm.”
The friend says it is believed Liezel had frequently been in the company of someone in a white bakkie.
Close friend Evangeliene Kortjie, 29, had also rushed to the scene.
“The time the children went to school, there was nothing [there] but it must be that her body was dumped [there afterwards],” she explained.
Marshay’s sister Nadia Albertyn, 30, said they were yet to receive an autopsy report and that police have made no arrests.
“This is sick, here is another woman murdered quite similarly like my sister and they spoke about a red bakkie with her case,” she said. “We don’t have the autopsy and there are no suspects.”
Meanwhile, Ward Councillor Barbara Rass said they were disgusted that the murder occurred in Women’s Month.
“This is a mother and she was going to have her baby in October,” Barbara said. “There is an evil out there.”
Meanwhile, police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said there have been no arrests.
“At 9.30pm the body of a 33-year-old female was found by a community member on the open field between Elk Lane and Freemont Lane, Sherwood Park, Atlantis,” said Van Wyk. “A murder case was opened for investigation.”
* Anyone with information is kindly asked to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
*This article was published in the Daily Voice