Three members of a Springfontein family were in custody on Thursday night after a woman allegedly stabbed a visiting cousin to death following an argument apparently fuelled by alcohol, police said.
Police discovered the body of the 25-year-old man on a railway line near the family home at 6am on Thursday at Springfontein, a small community near Bloemfontein.
”On further investigation it was later discovered that the deceased had visited his family in town from a farm near Bethulie in the southern Free State,” police spokesman Captain Ernest Mayiki said.
”It is also alleged that the incident happened after a drinking spree by the family in celebration of the visit by the deceased. A fight allegedly broke out on Wednesday night between the deceased and a female cousin, Mayiki said. She then stabbed him in the chest with a knife.
The woman allegedly tried to stop the victim’s wound from bleeding by pouring sugar on it. Realising that the victim had died, the woman, her 75-year-old father and a 19-year-old family member carried the body to the nearby railway line where they dropped the body between the rails.
Fortunately no train passed through. The police were also investigating that after the culprits had returned home they tried to remove the blood stains from a carpet before going to sleep.
All three were arrested and were expected to appear in the Springfontein Magistrate’s Court on charges of murder and concealment of a corpse.
The name of the deceased cannot be revealed as his next of kin has not been informed. – Sapa