Probe into killing of US consulate staffer

Published Jan 14, 2013

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Johannesburg - Joburg police are investigating the brutal murder of a 41-year-old American man on Sunday.

Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the man, a staffer at the US Consulate General in Joburg, was seen driving into Oxford Gardens on Oxford Road in Illovo with a 29-year-old woman at about 3am.

“A guard heard a woman screaming. When he went to investigate, he saw that she had a knife in her hand and the victim had been stabbed on the upper body,” said Dlamini. The man died at the scene.

Police arrested the woman and held her at the Bramley police station. She was expected to appear in court on Monday.

Dlamini said the motive for the murder was unknown and was being investigated.

US embassy spokesman Jack Hillmeyer on Sunday confirmed the death of the US consulate employee who, he said, was an American citizen.

He said the embassy could not reveal his name until family members in the US and elsewhere had been informed.

The embassy would probably announce his name on Monday.

Hillmeyer would not comment on the circumstances of the man’s death, saying he had evidently died at a private residence and so the embassy would leave it to the police to discuss the circumstances.

It is understood that the man was an IT specialist.

The Star

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