LEONARD NDZHUKLA, Delmas | Monday 7.30pm.
A MAN who decapitated a young girl in Delmas, Mpumalanga, in 1990 has escaped from Weskoppies mental asylum and is believed to be on the loose in the small farming town.
Police told African Eye News Service on Monday that Johannes Mohale-Monareng may be linked to three heads and three headless bodies found in rivers in the area in the past two weeks. “We are not saying that he is the suspect but he can assist us in our investigation,” said member of a special task team investigating the Delmas murders, Captain Riaan Jacobs.
Mohale-Monareng’s medical and personal records are also missing from Weskoppies Hospital and staff members are unable to tell police exactly when he escaped.
Another task team member, Inspector Louis Frade, said police visited Weskoppies last Wednesday following a tip-off that Mohale-Monareng could assist with the investigation. “Mohale-Monareng was sentenced to 25 years at the hospital but was not there when we arrived,” said Inspector Frade.
“His records were also missing and we haven’t got any leads about where he may be at the moment or even when he escaped,” he added.
Mohale-Monareng cut off the young girl’s head in November 1990 and attempted to sell it to a local businessman for R1000. The horror of the 1990 killing was relived in the past two weeks when fishermen near found three heads floating in the Wilge River near Botleng.
Police divers and sniffer dogs found no trace of the victims’ bodies but, a week later, a teenager and his four-year-old brother found three headless bodies floating in a stream 25 km away on their father’s farm, Rietkol.
Captain Jacobs said follow-up forensic testing could reveal that at least two of the heads and bodies match. Last week, preliminary findings by pathologist, Dr Hans Hoog, indicated that the heads and bodies belonged to six different people and did not match.
None of the victims have been identified yet and police believe that they may have been abducted from communities outside of Delmas. — African Eye News Service