Thulasizwe Nkomo and Lyse Comins
Durban - FOUR suspects have been arrested for the murder of 85-year-old Cramond farmer Bill Theron.
Theron was found dead at his smallholding in the Cramond area near Albert Falls Dam on December 12.
KZN police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said the suspects, aged between 32 and 38, were due to appear in court this week.
"It is alleged that on December 12 at 4.20pm, the suspects entered a farm on Ottos Bluff in Cramond and attacked an 85-year-old farmer.
"He sustained an open wound to his head and was declared dead at the scene. The suspects fled after an incident. Nothing was taken from the house," said Mbele.
Mbele said a murder case was opened for investigation by Cramond SAPS and investigated by the Provincial Organised Crime unit.
"On December 18 at 10pm, the Provincial Organised Crime Unit, Pietermaritzburg Cluster Task Team and Magma Security conducted a multi-disciplinary operation and traced all the suspects involved in the murder of the elderly man. Four suspects were arrested in the Cramond area," she said.
A bush knife which was suspected to have been used in the crime was found in the suspects’ possession, she said.
Meanwhile, the two seasonal farm workers who have been charged with the triple murder of a Bishopstowe farm manager, his wife and her elderly father will spend Christmas behind bars.
Farm manager Daniel Debruin, 58, his wife Glynis Debruin , 60, and her father Collin Schwegman, 84, were brutally stabbed to death on a Bishopstowe sugar cane farm, just 20km outside Pietermaritzburg last week. The farm’s crops were also set alight and the suspects fled with a safe and petty cash.
Mbele said the suspects had visited the farmer’s tuck shop where they had purchased chips and spoke to the farm manager’s son earlier in the day.
She said later that afternoon a neighbouring farmer had alerted Debruin’s son that the farm was on fire. But when he tried to phone his parents there was no response. He rushed to the farm and found the bodies of his parents and grandfather with stab wounds to the necks and head.
Charges of murder were opened at Bishopstowe police station and detectives, with the assistance of the Mountain Rise K9 Unit, arrested two suspects, aged 27 and 35, at Swapo informal settlement in Copesville.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Kara said the suspects had appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court to face three charges of murder and a charge of robbery.
“The matter was remanded to January 12 for a bail application and further investigation,” Kara said.
The Mercury