Cold case that won't go away

For eight years Lauren Sleep's killer has walked free. But now, thanks to Oscar Pistorius, the hunt for the primary suspect might soon resume.

Chad Khan disappeared on the night in 2006 when Sleep, a Briton, was found strangled in his Pretoria home.

UK tabloid the Sunday Mirror ran a story about how the Sleep murder investigation had gone cold. Now her family plans to use the money the newspaper paid it to find her murderer.

Khan was named as the attacker by a survivor - Sleep's friend, who had been seriously wounded. After witnessing the UK media frenzy over the Pistorius trial, Sleep's uncle, Chris Corns, contacted the tabloid, hoping it would be interested in the murder of a Briton.

Sleep's parents, Dave and Marilyn, hope the new story in the Mirror will generate a lead.

"All we need is for somebody who knows where he is to come forward," said Dave.

Police spokesman Captain Bonginkosi Msimango said the case was still under investigation.

On January 19 2006 Sleep, 25, was found strangled in her boyfriend Khan's cottage in Hercules, west of Pretoria. In the next room her friend, Liesel Schoonwinkel, was found in a pool of blood, close to death.

"She was cut open, top to bottom, twice," said Liesel's father, Chris Schoon-winkel. "She had been stabbed in the liver, pancreas, neck and a lung."

Schoonwinkel said Khan had disappeared into the night through a window .

Liesel spent a month in intensive care. She now works as an air hostess in the Middle East.

For weeks after Sleep's murder, her parents thought Khan would be arrested. Police told them and the Schoonwinkels that they had tried, but failed, to strike a deal with Khan's family to hand him over.

The Sleeps hired a private detective who tracked him to Swaziland. More than R100000 later, they ran out of money.

"There are all these famous murder stories in South Africa but all other murders are just as important," said Schoonwinkel.

Khan's family could not be contacted.