Cape Town - Lucinda Evans, chairperson of the Steenberg Policing Forum (CPF), has shot down rumours that a missing girl’s body had been found.
It has been a week and the search for the missing Steenberg girl is still ongoing, she says.
Rene-Tracy Roman, 13, disappeared last Friday, after she left her home to buy a packet of chips at a nearby shop but never returned.
Evans said the rumours was causing Rene’s family “untold heartache and stress”.
“I would like to appeal to all community leaders, and NGO leaders, to please ask community members who started the rumour that has caused so much panic and mayhem to immediately stop saying that Rene-Tracy Roman’s body was found."
“No body was found. No clothing was found,” Evans said.
She adds: “We are offering a R20 000 reward for information leading to Rene-Tracy Roman’s return to her family.”
Rene’s traumatised stepfather, Mervyn Jacobs, says the rumours have hit the family hard.
“Every time we hear about a body being found we freeze and fear that it may be her,” he says.
“We have even been searching at hospitals and mortuaries hoping to find her. Her mother, Chrissandre, is broken, and cannot cry anymore."
Rene was last seen wearing a pink sleeveless top, black tights and flip-flops. The girl is 1.5m tall, has green eyes and long black hair.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Lucinda Evans on
073 424 4665 or Sergeant Anthony on 021 702 9027.