/ 22 July 2003

Heads and bodies found in East Rand dams

The head of a young woman was found floating in an East Rand dam on Monday and divers were searching for the missing body, police said.

Superintendent Andy Pieke said the head of a woman aged between 16 and 20 was found floating in the Spaarwater dam at Duduza around 2pm by a passerby.

It appeared that the head had been sliced from the body by a sharp instrument and had been in the water for about four days, Pieke said. Police divers and dogs were searching the dam and surrounding area but so far with no success. The head was taken to the Springs mortuary and investigations were continuing, Pieke said.

The body of an unidentified man was found half submerged in a small dam at Extension 28, Vosloorus about 4pm on Monday, Pieke said. The man, believed to be in his late 40s, was wearing dark blue trousers and a green T-shirt and had been in the water for about four days.

Pieke said there were no visible wounds on the body and a post mortem would be conducted at the Germiston government mortuary to establish the cause of death.

Last Wednesday around 11am the skeleton of an elderly man wearing grey trousers and with a rope tied around its legs was found in the Blesbokspruit at Springs.

Pieke said the badly decomposed skeletal remains were recovered by the East Rand police diving unit and taken to the Springs mortuary.

On May 26 the headless body of a man was found in a dam at Brakpan on the East Rand and the head of the same man was found in another dam about a kilometre away on May 31.

Pieke said that man was identified by his family who had last seen him as he went off to work a day earlier. Murder dockets were opened in each of these incidents but so far no arrests had been made, Pieke said. – Sapa