Nine women found dead in Ekurhuleni in nine weeks as police hunt a person of interest

Nine women have been found dead across Ekurhuleni in nine weeks, their bodies discovered in fields, beside roads, near the R21, in a river and behind a hotel. The most recent was found on Thursday, September 17, in an open area on Lama Street in Villa Lisa, Dawn Park.

Residents came out of their homes when word spread, some still in slippers, dressing gowns and blankets. The woman, believed to be about 30, was found partially clothed in a blue T-shirt and pink underwear. Police said she suffered a fatal injury to her throat.

Her death brought the count to nine since the first discovery on July 15. That first woman, 37, was found naked in a field in Kempton Park with her hands bound with cable ties. A suspect was arrested two days later and remains in custody. Her identity and the cause of her death have not been made public.

The nine cases, in order

On July 17, Itumeleng Kekana, 32, went missing in Kempton Park. Her family searched hospitals, police stations and mortuaries before her body was found on August 3 on Great North Road in Pomona. She left behind her parents and a 14-year-old daughter.

On August 24, a 32-year-old woman was found partially clothed near the R21. On September 7, a woman believed to be in her late twenties was found in a river in Clayville, near the Mall of Tembisa, wearing only her underwear.

On September 10, a woman’s body was found near the R21 in Kempton Park. Her family identified her as Gracious Nkomo, 28, and police said she was found partially clothed. Around the same period, Elizabeth Moselakgomo, 38, known to her family as Tsontso, was found dead behind a hotel in Rhodesfield after going out for her usual run. Her family identified her.

On September 14, the semi-naked body of a bruised woman was found in Olifantsfontein. She has not been publicly identified. The next day, Dineo Evelyn Motapane, 38, was found beside a road in KwaThema, Springs. Preliminary pathology findings indicated she had been strangled, and her family identified her at Springs Mortuary.

Then came Dawn Park. Gauteng acting provincial commissioner Major-General Fred Kekana said preliminary information indicated the ninth woman had been killed elsewhere and her body dumped in the area.

What police have and have not said

The investigation has been escalated beyond the province. Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili said investigators were following every lead, and that the scale of the matter required national resources. “We cannot give a case of this magnitude to the province alone,” she said. A multidisciplinary team is on the matter, and acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane has said police are tracing a person of interest.

A R400 000 reward has been announced by the police for information that assists the investigation. The Democratic Alliance separately announced a R500 000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Mosikili said police had not been told the conditions attached to the party’s offer and would not accept it, adding that the SAPS already has a process for handling rewards. The party has since said leads would be channelled to the police.

Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia said this week that it was too early to establish whether a pattern links the deaths. That remains the central unanswered question.

There are similarities. Several victims were found partially or fully undressed. Several were found in the Kempton Park area or nearby, in isolated or open spaces. Similarities are not evidence of a common perpetrator. Police have not publicly confirmed a shared DNA profile, a cellphone trail, a vehicle, a suspect, a weapon or any other forensic evidence connecting all nine cases, and no common motive has been established.

Four victims have been publicly identified: Kekana, Moselakgomo, Motapane and Nkomo. The other five have not been named in the information available. Apart from Motapane’s reported strangulation and the throat injury suffered by the Dawn Park victim, the causes of death have not been publicly detailed.

The questions that remain

Whether one person or a group is responsible. Where the women were killed, given that police believe the Dawn Park victim was killed elsewhere and do not know whether that applies to the others. How most of them died. What happened to each woman in the hours before her death, including her last movements and who last saw her alive. And who the person of interest is, which case that person relates to, and what evidence led investigators there.

There is also the question of the suspect arrested after the July 15 killing. He remains in custody, and there is no confirmation that he is connected to any of the deaths that followed.

What it means for women in Ekurhuleni

Police have urged women and girls to take extra care when walking, running or exercising, while stressing that the warning is not intended to stop women from living their lives. That advice lands hard in a metro where a 38-year-old was killed on her regular run, and where the discovery of a body in a street sends neighbours out in their nightclothes to see for themselves.

The families of the identified victims are waiting on answers that the case docket has not yet produced. Kekana’s parents and her 14-year-old daughter are among them.

The investigation continues under a multidisciplinary team drawing on national resources, with a R400 000 police reward standing for information that assists it and a person of interest still being traced. Anyone with information can contact the SAPS reward line or their nearest police station.

Source: IOL, Nine in nine weeks: The Kempton Park questions police still need to answer