In a new turn of events in the case of the missing police officers from Bloemfontein, police in Gauteng have found the bodies of the three Free State police officers in the Hennops River in Centurion next to the N1.
The National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, General Fannie Masemola, said in a news release this afternoon that the police had hoped to find the three police officers safe, unharmed and alive, but this is not the case.
Brigadier Athlenda Mathe from the national SAPS communications office, confirmed this morning that the police were searching the Hennops River near Centurion after the last sighting of the three police officers that were traveling from Bloemfontein to Limpopo.
The missing members, Constables Cebekhulu Linda (24), Keamogetswe Buys (30), and Boipelo Senoge (20), were last seen alive on Wednesday, 23 April, at the Engen garage near the Grasmere Toll Plaza along the N1 in Gauteng.
“It is with deep sorrow that I confirm that our three members have been found, together with two other bodies, one being an admin clerk that is attached to our Lyttleton police station,” said Masemola today.
The trio, who was off duty at the time, were travelling in a white VW Polo sedan from Bloemfontein to their area of deployment in Limpopo when they disappeared. Their vehicle tracking system and cellphones have been unreachable since their last known location.
The SAPS launched a full-scale high-level investigation and search operation trying to find the police officers.
“We first found pieces of vehicle – parts believed to be of a VW Polo along the N1, that led us to the banks of the river where we found a Renault Kangoo panel van,” Masemola said. “Our SAPS and Tshwane divers immediately commenced with the search, where we discovered two bodies, one of the driver of the Renault panel van who it is just came to light that he is one of our employees attached to the Lyttleton Police Station and the second body was that of Constable Senoge. We had to abandon the search as it was already dark,” he said about the search on Monday.
“This morning, the third body was discovered which is believed to be that of Constable Linda. We further found a fourth decomposed body, we are still trying to identify who this person is. Later this afternoon, we sadly found the fifth body of Constable Buys.”
Masemola said the families were taken to the mortuary where they have identified the bodies of their children and loved ones.
He said that the police would not like to speculate what led to the discovery of the bodies in this river, whether it was an accident or not. The police is still looking for the VW Polo in which the officers were travelling to Limpopo.
“This is not how we expected this case to unfold, we were hoping for a positive outcome. We are relieved that we could provide the painful closure to the families and the broader SAPS family”, Masemola said.
He said the investigation into the incident is continuing.
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