Cape Town – A 24-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder of librarian Clodine Nuys in Jonkersberg, outside Groot Brak River in the Mossel Bay municipality.
Southern Cape police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said the suspect was found in dense forest on Thursday morning. The Jonkersberg resident had fled his home on Wednesday.
“Ongoing investigations led investigators to a house in the same village where a possible suspect resides. On arrival (on Wednesday), the suspect fled the area with police in pursuit.
"He disappeared in the dense forest,” Pojie said.
He will be detained at the Groot Brak River police station until his appearance on a murder charge in the Mossel Bay Magistrate's Court on Monday.
The 22-year-old Nuys was last seen alive when she left her friend’s home at 7am on Tuesday.
Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said the library closes at 4pm and when she did not arrive at home, which she shares with a friend, at her usual time of 4.20pm, her family started looking for her.
At about 7pm that same day, her body was found by a boy who took part in a community-led search.
Her body was lying at the back of a local crèche. The 11-year-old boy found her lying on her stomach with her hands and feet bound, with tape over her mouth and a cable tie around her neck.
Her cellphone and the keys to the library were reported to be missing.
According to tributes on Facebook for Nuys, she was the "girl with the pretty smile", who was known for being quiet and focused, and had a heart of gold.