Durban - While former Durban top cop Prem Emmanuel Basdeo languishes in jail as a murder accused, the search for his wife’s body continues.
Basdeo, 58, the former superintendent at Sydenham SAPS, reported his second wife, Dawn, had gone missing on June 8. Six days later, he was arrested and charged with her murder.
According to reports, although Dawn’s body was not found - her car was recovered in Soweto - the police found enough DNA evidence to arrest Basdeo.
His bail application is on July 20. He also faces charges of defeating the ends of justice and perjury because of an initial statement reporting his 57-year-old wife as missing.
The former Southgate, Phoenix, man was charged with the murder of his first wife, Neetha, but walked free when the case was thrown out of court.
Her body was found in a shipping container with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Eleven months before Neetha’s death, Basdeo went missing for 12 days.
He claimed he had been kidnapped, attacked, robbed, and had spent three days gambling at a Pretoria casino before managing to escape from his captors.
He made his way to Durban, booked off sick from work and was admitted to hospital for psychiatric treatment.
After his acquittal on the first murder charge, he was reinstated in the police force.
“Soon afterwards, he moved to Gauteng, where he married Dawn, who was a family friend,” a police source said. “In 2016, he resigned from the force to start a trucking business.”
Police spokesperson Captain Colette Weilbach said there were no new developments. “Stations around Gauteng were asked to contact Brooklyn police station if a body was found that met the description of Dawn Basdeo.”