National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola says finding a missing VW Polo will help crack the case of three missing cops, confirmed to be among five bodies recovered from the Hennops River in Centurion.
Speaking during a media briefing at the river on Tuesday night, Masemola said the bodies of constables, Keamogetswe Buys, 30, Boipelo Senoge, 24, and Cebekhulu Linda, 24, had been identified by their families at the Tshwane mortuary.
The officers were last seen early Thursday at a petrol station near the Grasmere Toll Plaza on the N1 in Gauteng.
The vehicle they were travelling on, a Volkswagen Polo hatchback, with registration JCL 401 FS, along with their cellphones and tracking device, was turned off after leaving the station.
The vehicle has not yet been found, he said.
Masemola said investigators found vehicle parts believed to be from a VW Polo along the N1, which led them to the riverbanks where a Renault Kangoo panel van was located.
He said the police and Tshwane divers immediately commenced the search.
“One of the bodies was that of the driver of the Renault panel van, who, we have just learned, is one of our employees attached to the Lyttelton police station,” said Masemola.
“This employee, according to his wife, had visited friends in the area on Saturday afternoon. He didn’t return home, but the wife said that by around 2am, Sunday, she checked the vehicle’s tracker and saw it was about 1 kilometer away from their house,” Masemola said.
He said they lived around Hennops Park, and the wife did not suspect anything was wrong.
“Unfortunately, she did not report him missing until Monday, after a passerby alerted police that there was a vehicle in the river.”
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Masemola said the search and rescue team responded, where they recovered the body, adding that the wife was later informed and confirmed it was her husband.
In the case of the missing constables, Masemola said police recovered two bodies on Monday but had to suspend the search due to darkness and resume on Tuesday.
“The second body was that of constable Senoge. We had to abandon the search as it was already dark,” he said.
“This morning (Tuesday), the third body was discovered, believed to be that of constable Linda.”
Masemola said police later found a fourth, decomposed body, which has not yet been identified.
“Later this afternoon (Tuesday), we sadly found the fifth body, that of constable Buys.”
Masemola said the families were taken to the Tshwane mortuary, where they identified their loved ones.
“We would like to thank the families and the task team involved in the search for working tirelessly to ensure a breakthrough in this case,” he said.
“This was not how we expected this case to unfold. We were hoping for a positive outcome.”
He said the investigation continues.
Masemola added that the high-level team combed Gauteng, Free State and Limpopo following all leads.
“Following all possible leads and after studying all evidence that we had gathered, our investigation led us to between the Grasmere Toll Plaza on the N1, past the Buccleugh interchange, onto John Voster Drive,” he said.
“We had hoped to find our three police officers safe, unharmed and alive, but this is not the case.”
On Tuesday afternoon, News reported that police recovered the fifth body, believed to be a woman, nearly 10 kilometers from the original scene along the same river.
The area around the river was overgrown, with flowing water, car tyres and other debris.
However, at the original scene on the N1, a steel barrier was bent, suggesting a crash.
Senior police officers, seasoned investigators and rescue teams were present at the scene.
Rescue workers in full gear used ladders and drone technology to recover one of the bodies from beneath a bridge.
Media were temporarily barred from filming the recovery operation of the fifth body but were granted access shortly after the body was retrieved.
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