Three charged with murder after Gumtree deal

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• Fourth person sought in Gumtree murder

Cape Town - Three men aged between 25 and 30 appeared in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court in connection with the abduction and murder of 21-year-old Olwyn Cowley.

Jason Elias, Shewaal Staggie and Romies Felix made their first appearance on Monday. They are charged with kidnapping, murder and possession of illegal firearms after two firearms were found on them.

Cowley was last seen on Thursday night after he left home to meet men who had expressed an interest in buying his car, a silver BMW 325ti, advertised on the online classified site Gumtree. The meeting was supposed to take place at Century City.

Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said police believed the men had met Cowley before kidnapping him and taking his car.

Van Wyk said police were still searching for a fourth suspect.

Cowley’s body was found with two gunshot wounds to the head on Friday at Monwabisi beach in Khayelitsha. His car was later found in Mitchells Plain where one of the suspects was arrested.

It is not the first time someone has been killed after responding to an ad on Gumtree.

A year ago Roz van der Vyver, 38, died in the intensive care unit of Karl Bremer Hospital. Van der Vyver had responded to an advertisement for a casual stocktaking job at the Pick n Pay in Observatory. She went for an interview, boarding a minibus full of passengers apparently heading to the store for a night shift. After being told that there were no vacancies available, she and the others were offered tea, coffee and juice for their efforts.

Van der Vyver’s friends told media that she awoke the following morning on a stretch of grass in Table View, only remembering drinking the juice.

She was admitted to hospital and died of a seizure days later.

neo.maditla@inl.co.za

Cape Argus