Another Cape ‘serial killer’ victim found

Cape Town:17/12/14:people from kensington walk over The field near Century city station where 5 bodies of woman was found. Pictures:Brendan Magaar

Cape Town:17/12/14:people from kensington walk over The field near Century city station where 5 bodies of woman was found. Pictures:Brendan Magaar

Published Dec 20, 2014

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The body of a sixth woman was found in the vicinity of the Century City railway station on Friday, ramping up fears that a serial killer is operating in the area.

Police discovered the body on Friday afternoon, and have not ruled out the possibility that more bodies are buried in the stretch of land.

The bodies have been discovered between the Century City and Acacia Park stations, land owned by Transnet, over a 10-month period from February.

Before yesterday’s discovery, the latest body was found a week ago.

All the bodies are those of women of the same race, and apparently within the same age group.

While police have not officially said they suspect a serial killer is behind the murders, as news of the discoveries spread this week so did speculation that the women were the victims of a serial killer.

Yesterday police spokesman Andre Traut confirmed that officers came across the latest body while conducting an ongoing investigation into the crimes in the area.

“During the investigation I’ve been informed that another body of a female has been found. It can’t (yet) be determined how long it was was there for,” he said late on Friday.

Weekend Argus understands that the body was decomposed, indicating it had probably been there for some time.

Traut reiterated that it was too soon to say whether there were links between the six bodies, or to reveal how the women were killed.

On Friday a relative of a missing woman, who had apparently been headed for the Century City area when she was last heard from, said detectives had told her they would probably have more information on the identities of the dead women next week.

Traut confirmed that, as part of their investigation, police were trying to establish the identities of the victims.

Earlier this week he said that, while there was no suggestion the crimes were the work of one or the same suspects using the same modus operandi, “we are looking at all possibilities, and are not excluding a link”.

Traut did not say how many bodies had been discovered.

Before yesterday’s discovery, Kensington Community Police Forum spokesman Lorenzo Sadan said five bodies had been found.

He told Weekend Argus he suspected the women had been killed elsewhere. “We are of the opinion they were killed at a different geographic location, and their bodies dumped here.”

As far as he was aware, the dead women had not worked in the area, otherwise, he said, he believed their disappearances would have been noticed.

Sadan said he hoped forensic testing or facial reconstructions were being done on the bodies so that the findings or images could be used to see if they matched any missing persons cases.

He said the area where the bodies were found was known for illegal dumping.

The Kensington Community Safety Watch, of which he is a member, was organising a clean-up campaign to try to get residents to grasp the importance of keeping the area tidy.

In a statement this week, Transnet said it had been asked to level heaps of sand that were there to prevent trucks getting to the area so they could illegally dump their loads.

The statement said Transnet had removed all dumped rubble, erected signs and placed pieces of concrete in the area to prevent further dumping.

But this only worked for a while because the concrete was removed to allow construction vehicles into the area for the building of Kensington station.

“An agreement was later reached with the community to install a boom gate to control access to the site in an effort to curb illegal dumping.

“Transnet honoured the request, but the boom gate was vandalised and later stolen,” the statement said.

- Saturday Argus

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