By Natasha Joseph
At six o'clock on Tuesday evening, Chelsea Jacobs walked out of her family home in Leiden, Delft, to buy sugar at a neighbouring spaza shop.
Three hours later, five-year-old Chelsea was found, bloodied and critically injured, in an open field.
She was raced to the Red Cross Children's Hospital, but died as a result of her injuries.
Within an hour, a 23-year-old man had been arrested by police on suspicion of abducting, raping and beating Chelsea to death.
Earlier in the evening, the suspect had accompanied Chelsea's worried mother to the Delft police station to report the little girl missing.
He was a neighbour and somebody members of the community described as a "friend" to the Jacobs family.
On Wednesday, shocked community members milled around outside the Jacobs's home.
Louisa Dolan, chairperson of the Delft community policing forum, said residents were "angry" and warned that, if the suspect was proved to have raped and killed Chelsea, he would be "in danger".
However, she cautioned against vigilantism or revenge attacks, saying that the community could not be sure he had committed the murder.
Dolan said the family had no funeral policy and were not sure how they would afford to bury Chelsea.
Inside the house, Chelsea's mother Lazania Jacobs hugged her self and softly described Chelsea as a "quiet" little girl.
Jacobs said she had sent her daughter to the shop right next door to buy sugar, and later became worried when Chelsea did not return.
She visited the shop and was told that Chelsea had left before buying anything because the shop had been crowded.
It was believed that she had gone to another shop in the neighbourhood, but after checking there and not finding Chelsea, Jacobs went to the police with a neighbour to report her daughter missing.
Her mother, Brenda Pase, gathered members of the Leiden Neighbourhood Watch and set off to search for Chelsea.
At about 9.30pm, 22-year-old Abduragiem Kamaldien was returning home from a friend's house and crossed an open field that runs along Silversands Road in Delft.
Kamaldien told the Cape Times on Wednesday he had stepped around a big stone and saw Chelsea's body.
"I went straight home and told my mom," Kamaldien said.
They phoned the police, who contacted local ambulance services.
Chelsea was taken to the Red Cross, Delft police spokesperson Joe Wilson said, but she died later on Tuesday night.
Wilson said that a packet of sugar and a blood-stained concrete block had been found on the field near Chelsea.
The suspect, who has been charged with abduction, rape and murder, will appear in the Bellville magistrate's court on Friday.