Cape Town - 22 years after 16-year-old Michelle Plaatjies of Hanover Park vanished after visiting friends, police are revisiting the case and have assigned a new detective.
Plaatjies was living in Groenall Walk in Hanover Park when she went missing on October 16, 1999.
Groenall Walk was also home to Shasha-Lee November, then 6, and Sadieka Titus, then 16, whose missing persons’ cases have also gone cold. The families lived just metres from one another.
Plaatjies’ neighbours have never forgotten her.
It is believed that Plaatjies left a note behind, stating that she wanted to explore the world and that she loved her family.
Shasha-Lee’s sister, Jasmine Harris, said they had more than one cold case in their street.
“There are not just two cold cases but three. Another girl went missing years ago and was never found.
“Michelle disappeared when I was a little girl but we remember her. We have lost contact with Michelle’s family.”
Another neighbour, who asked not to be identified, said they recalled the story of Plaatjies after being told it by her mother.
“The mother said she had gotten into a taxi and was never seen again.”
The founder of Concerned Parents of Missing Children, Michelle Ohlsson, still holds a case file on the Plaatjies case.
Ohlsson is the mother of nine-year-old Matthew Ohlsson, who vanished in Mitchells Plain in 1997.
She helped the family at the time.
“We were not part of the search but (gave) support to the mother after she went missing.”
Ohlsson said, unlike the police, they kept records of their cases.
The case record reads: “On 16 October, 1999 she and some friends apparently went to Bonteheuwel. Later in the evening, her mother called family and family friends, as she was concerned about her whereabouts, as she had not returned from Bonteheuwel. When her mother could not trace her, she decided to report her disappearance at the Philippi police station. The response from the police was that maybe she was having a good time with her friends.
“On her return from the police, her mother decided to look through her personal belongings and discovered a note. In the note, Michelle explained how happy she was with her mother, but she wanted to go and explore the world on her own.
“She and her friends have not returned home yet.”
Police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk confirmed that the case was still under investigation and that all efforts would be made to find her.
“The search for the missing person is ongoing. All leads are being followed in order to find her.
“Any person with information can contact the investigation officer, Detective Lieutenant-Colonel Gavin Sias, at 021 690 1521 or on his cellphone number at 082 469 7243.”
Weekend Argus