Bodies found buried in Olievenhoutbosch yard

For most of the day yesterday, residents of Olievenhoutbosch wa law enforcement agencies go about the work at a propety where the three bodies are believed to have been buried. Picture: Oupa Mokoena African News Agency (ANA)

For most of the day yesterday, residents of Olievenhoutbosch wa law enforcement agencies go about the work at a propety where the three bodies are believed to have been buried. Picture: Oupa Mokoena African News Agency (ANA)

Published Aug 6, 2020

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Pretoria - Experts are today expected to exhume the bodies of three people believed to have been buried in a shallow grave outside a home in Olievenhoutbosch.

Police yesterday arrested four people pending forensic confirmation in connection with the incident.

Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said one of those arrested confessed to his fellow residents on Tuesday evening that he and three others, including his mother, killed three people and buried the bodies in the yard.

“The possible grave has since been declared a crime scene and is cordoned off to avoid any tampering until crime scene experts from the forensic science laboratory of the SAPS have processed it,” Peters said.

Traumatised by the incident, a 17-year-old boy is believed to have confessed to the crime.

The teenager reportedly took the elders, a traditional healer and police officers to the spot where the bodies were allegedly buried by his mother.

The property belongs to an elderly man who had apparently had a romantic relationship with the woman. He was the first to disappear, followed by the woman’s second boyfriend and lastly her other son.

The chairperson of the ANC Youth League in the area, Tebogo Koloane, said: “The woman’s other son was struggling to cope with the secret. He consulted with a traditional healer who contacted us. The boy subsequently confessed to the murder.

“We called two police officers who we trusted, one from SAPS and another a member of the Tshwane Metro Police Department.

“They agreed to come with us without their uniforms and that was when he showed us the spot where the bodies were buried. We confronted his mother, who initially made up a story that her boyfriends had gone to different places. She said her other son left because he was gay, which had caused a rift between them,” Koloane said.

“However, she eventually confessed to killing them, but tried to blame it on her 17-year-old son, who couldn’t have killed three people on his own. He told us the killing took place four years ago when he was 13.

“These bodies have been here since 2017. First it was the elderly boyfriend who was killed, then her son and lastly the new boyfriend.”

The other two suspects are the mother’s new boyfriend and a tenant in the yard.

The mother’s aunt, Thobeka Sopam, said the matter had broken her heart because she also asked about the disappearance of her nephew and was told he went to Cape Town because he was gay and couldn’t live with his mother. All that didn’t make sense to her, she said.

According to neighbours, the first boyfriend had a chronic illness and was starved to death and the second poisoned. The woman’s other son was allegedly hit with a bottle on the head and body with bricks and a bottle.

Pretoria News

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