/ 7 December 2000

PARENTS SLEPT ABOVE CHILD’S BODY

THE body of a strangled seven-year-old boy from Eerste River outside Cape Town has been found in a suitcase under his parents’ bed. Cheslyn Hammers’ aunt found his body when she went to fetch clean towels from the suitcase. The boy’s father has been arrested for murder, while his mother thought he was visiting his grandmother. She said she had detected a strange smell in her bedroom over the weekend, and was shocked to discover that she and her husband had spent the weekend sleeping with their youngest child’s body under their bed. – AFP