Cape Town - Police have arrested two men for the horrific murder of a teenage girl in Bredasdorp, the same town where Anene Booysen was killed five years ago.
The suspects, aged 18 and 25, are expected to make their first appearance in the Bredasdorp Magistrate's Court on Thursday.
The charred body of 17-year-old Jodene Pieters was found at the Cement Dam at P&B Limework in the Overberg town on Sunday about 9.30pm.
The Daily Voice spoke to Jodene’s distraught family on Wednesday who revealed that police had to ask them for a photograph to help identify the teen.
Cops took in four men for questioning and on Wednesday arrested two of them for murder.
Read:
Police spokesperson, Captain FC van Wyk, says: “This office can confirm that out of the arrested suspects brought in for questioning, two of them age 18 and 25, have been charged for murder and will appear in Bredasdorp Magistrate's Court [today].”
Jodene’s cousin, Charlton Arendoff, 25, said on Wednesday that the family was in a state of shock but would be attending court on Wednesday.
He says they found out about Jodene’s murder when police showed up at their house on Monday, asking for a photograph to help identify her burnt remains.
He said police did not tell the family how Jodene was found or what had transpired.
“On Monday morning the police was at our home and asked if we have a photograph of her because of the condition the body was in,” Charlton explains. “This was to help identify her.”
He said they do not know who police took into custody and could, therefore, not say whether they knew the suspects or not.
“We will see at court [today],” he said.
He added that Jodene was in Grade 8 at Albert Myburgh High School in Bredasdorp last year but dropped out this year.
“She was a spontaneous child en dit is 'n groot slag vir die familie (and this is a terrible tragedy for the family ).”
The murder comes just days before the five-year commemoration of Anene, who was raped, disembowelled and left for dead on 2 February 2013.
Anene Booysen. Picture: Supplied
Johannes Kana was found guilty of rape and murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2015, the body of Elda Jaftha, 15, was found under the bed of her boyfriend, Zimbabwean national Gift Sibondo, 31, in the same area.
Sibondo was found guilty on three charges of kidnapping, statutory rape and murder.
In the same year, five-year-old Kayde Williams was raped and her limbs broken.
A suspect, Nicolas Jacobus van Edon, 45, who disappeared on the same day Kayde was last seen alive, was later found hanging from a tree in a cemetery in the town.