Durban - Philani Ntuli, the man accused of the murder of Durban sex worker Siam Lee, has been officially declared dead after more than a week of speculation that he may be alive.
The Durban High Court struck the murder case off the court roll on Tuesday after the National Prosecuting Authority confirmed to the court that he had died of skin cancer. The 30-year-old accused died on June 21.
The court heard on Tuesday that the NPA had launched an investigation into his death after the media reported that he had died.
The court heard that police investigators conducted a visual inspection of his body and took finger prints which confirmed that the body was Ntuli's.
Ntuli is expected to be buried this Saturday in Sobantu in Pietermaritzburg.
Last month, Ntuli’s lawyer, Reial Mahabeer, said that he had been informed that Ntuli had died. He had been told that he died on June 21.
The mother of slain sex worker Siam Lee, Carmen Lee in the Durban High Court on Tuesday where the case against the man accused of killing her was struck off the court roll after he died of skin cancer. Picture: Sne Masuku
Mahabeer said that Ntuli's uncle had confirmed to him that he had died due to skin cancer.
But with the police and the National Prosecuting Authority unable to confirm that he had indeed died, it raised speculation that he had faked his death, in an elaborate effort to escape justice.
At the time of his death, he had been out on R40 000 bail.
Ntuli faced a string of charges related to 19-year-old Lee's murder, as well as others relating to his ex-fiancé.
He was arrested after Lee's charred body was discovered in a sugarcane field in New Hanover, in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, in January 2018.
Lee's mother, Carmen, sat with a female friend in court looking drained and sad.