A suspected serial rapist has confessed to kidnapping and murdering Roodepoort pupil Louise De Waal, Gauteng police said on Thursday.
“He handed himself in at the Margate police station [in KwaZulu-Natal], this morning,” acting Gauteng police commissioner Maj-Gen Nobesuthu Masiya told reporters in Johannesburg.
She said Warrant Officer Peet du Toit, who headed up the investigation into De Waal’s kidnapping, managed to get hold of the man through his brother, and convinced him to hand himself in.
The man was allegedly linked to nine cases of rape and one of murder, she said.
The crimes were attributed to a man nicknamed the “Sunday rapist”.
According to Beeld newspaper, the police had been investigating the man after finding De Waal’s school bag in a car that matched the description her friend gave to police.
Ndou earlier said a grey Toyota Hilux bakkie, matching the description of the car used to abduct the teenager on Wednesday morning, had been found abandoned at a house in Florida, Roodepoort.
Beeld reported that the man had been under investigation in the past for harassing schoolgirls in the Roodepoort area.
Body identified
De Waal’s family was however widely quoted in the media on Thursday as saying the 17-year-old Hoërskool Die Burger pupil’s body had been identified by a belly ring and earrings.
On Wednesday morning, a bakkie pulled up alongside two girls walking on the corner of Rina and Herman streets in White Ridge around 7am.
“A man got out and ordered the teenager into the vehicle. When the girl refused, he pointed a firearm at her until she complied,” Ndou said.
The other girl, Natasha Gordon, ran away and the bakkie sped off with her friend. — Sapa