There is a strong suspicion that a body police found on the Tradouw Pass, near Barrydale in the Western Cape, is that of missing Dutch exchange student Marleen Konings, police said on Friday.
Western Cape Provincial Commissioner Mzwandile Petros, at a media briefing late on Friday night, said the body is badly decomposed.
”[It] is difficult to look at the face and say it is Marleen … the body has been there for more than 17 days,” he said.
Petros said the area in which the body was discovered is very hot and in close proximity to water.
A 46-year-old man has been taken into custody, but not formally charged with Konings’s murder, Petros said.
The man was arrested in Upington on a fraud charge on January 14. He was questioned by the investigation team the following day, but was reluctant to cooperate, saying that he suffered from memory loss.
He denied knowing Konings, but under further questioning pointed out a picnic spot on the road between Barrydale and Suurbraak, where the body was discovered at 3pm on Friday.
The man, whom Petros described as a ”person known to law enforcement”, has already appeared in court on a fraud charge related to the use of Konings’s bank card.
Petros said the investigation was not easy because it had police traversing three provinces — the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
He said the man made use of aliases, and confirmed he was not Rob Cowley, the name of the man who was travelling with Konings originally.
Petros said investigations are continuing to determine whether more than one person was involved in the crime.
Meanwhile, the consular general of The Netherlands in Cape Town, Ellen Berends, said she was ”very happy” with the police investigation.
”It was well-coordinated … [but we] would have liked to see another outcome, though,” she said.
Berends said it was an isolated incident and she did not believe that it would have negative repercussions in The Netherlands.
The woman’s father, Edwin; mother, Jose; and younger sister Lotte are receiving counselling and will remain in South Africa until the forensic investigation is completed and the body is ready to be repatriated.
The suspect is scheduled to appear in the Beaufort West Magistrate’s Court on January 23 in connection with the fraud charge.
Konings was last seen with a tall, slender man said to be in his mid-forties, as the two left a hotel in a hired car in Mossel Bay for Cape Town on December 26.
Her disappearance came to light when a friend, Winneke Lobeek, reported her missing after Konings failed to show up at a pre-arranged meeting on December 29.
The hire car, a silver-grey Toyota Tazz, was found in the Northern Cape town of Colesberg, a popular rest stop for travellers and truckers.
Konings’s parents flew to South Africa this month and spent much of their time handing out fliers bearing the film and media student’s photograph and an identikit of the suspect.
Konings was studying at Peninsula Technikon. — Sapa