A man and a woman have been arrested in the Johannesburg area in connection with a murder case in which the victim was set in concrete, East Rand police said on Monday.
Superintendent Andy Pieke said a Boksburg man found the corpse encased in concrete in a dustbin in his yard in Boksburg on Sunday.
The dustbin was sealed and when the man forced it open, he saw human legs sticking out of the concrete slab inside.
An investigation revealed that the dustbin was brought to the Boksburg house about five weeks ago by a 28-year-old lodger. The lodger told the home owner that he was experimenting with concrete and that that was why the bin had been sealed.
The lodger had since moved to Kempton Park, where the police tracked him down and arrested him on suspicion of murder.
Further investigations led to the arrest of a 43-year-old woman in Bryanston on Monday. She is allegedly a friend of the male suspect.
The murdered man was removed from the dustbin and the concrete at the Germiston mortuary, and a forensic pathologist will soon conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
The victim has not yet been identified. Pieke said, however, that the body is believed be that of a 40-year-old man with no family in South Africa, but with relatives in Iceland. His South African friends thought he had gone to visit them.
The motive for the murder was possibly ”of a financial nature”, Pieke said.
The suspects will appear in court on Wednesday. — Sapa