Johannesburg - Gauteng police and private investigators are on the hunt for two men who are wanted for murder and armed robbery. S.S.S Senior Specialist Investigator Jan Roos said, in the first case, a would-be Good Samaritan paid with his life when he took in a destitute couple.
The victim wanted to adopt a dog at the Vastfontein Community Upliftment Mission in February when he was allegedly approached by Wayne Farrell and his partner, who asked him for a place to stay.
“The victim took them in and gave them a home. On February 17, the victim was overpowered and beaten severely with a pick axe by Wayne Farrell and his companion. The victim survived the attack. His farm worker died after he too, was brutally injured with the pickaxe,” said Roos.
He said the Farrell couple took the victim’s bakkie and stole various items and implements from the premises. They fled and tried to sell the stolen goods at pawn shops. Farrell’s companion was arrested on February 19, but he is still missing and a fugitive from the law.
In another matter, the son of a murdered man has offered a reward of R 5000 for any information that will lead to the successful arrest of Suprise Dimakatso Mokalapa Motshikaro. Motshikaro is wanted for the murder of Randall John Bason on February 15, 2016, in Die Wilgers, Pretoria. Russel Bason said despite posting the R 5000 reward and calling in private investigators, his father’s alleged murderer remains at large.
“There were a number of break-ins in the area in the lead up to my dad’s murder, and we suspect that it may have been the same people, but we are not sure. My dad contacted police to come and take fingerprints after a break-in at the property, but they never arrived,” he said.
“I even took off with the police for failing to come take fingerprints at my parents’ home after the break in. If they had, we may have had fingerprints of the suspect,” he said.
Bason said on the morning of the murder, his mother had left the house for her daily morning exercise not knowing that she would return home to find her husband murdered.
“My mom sent a message to my dad at around nine that morning, and he didn’t reply. When she arrived home, just after 10, she found him dead,” he said.
Bason, who had just dropped off his kids at school, told of how he was contacted by his mother-in-law to say a neighbour had seen his mother running and screaming from the house.
“My mother screamed at me that my father was dead when I called her. I will never forget her screams. They also attacked my dad with a meat cleaver. He was hacked several times, but that did not kill him. They tied him up with telephone and computer cables, and he died of asphyxiation. When they were done, they placed a removable desk top over his body,” said Bason.
Bason said the family has learnt that Motshikaro’s accomplice has since died of natural causes, but he remains on the run.
Police spokesperson Colonel Dimakgatso Sello said the docket had been transferred to the Provincial Investigation Unit, and it is still under investigation.