Body in river may warm up cold case

DNA tests on a body found floating in a Cape Town river might hold the key to a murder mystery playing out in the Bellville Magistrate's Court.

Western Cape police believe the body might be that of 34-year-old Rochelle de Beer, from Durbanville, who was reported missing a year ago after being dropped off at her home by her boyfriend, Johannes Pretorius.

Pretorius, who was questioned and released by the police at the time of De Beer's disappearance, has been remanded in custody and appeared in court yesterday on a charge of murder.

Police spokesman Warrant Officer November Filander said the arrest followed a year-long police investigation.

"While the 36-year-old suspect was remanded in custody at the Durbanville police station for seven days, further investigation led the police to search for the victim's body at a river in the Durbanville area. Nothing was found," he said.

"Police divers then recalled that a badly decomposed body of an unidentified female was taken out of the river, in the Philadelphia area, last year, on July 14.

"To establish the identity of the deceased woman, DNA samples from the body were obtained at the Salt River Mortuary and are being analysed."

A detective working on the case said further details of the police investigation would be revealed once the DNA test results had been confirmed.

It was hoped the findings would bring closure for De Beer's family, who have had few leads in the case since she disappeared on June 5 last year.