Betty Ketani's family drove 800km to knock on the door of the old railway bus. The faded red metal answered with a hollow gong. An empty coffin lay open a metre away, inviting Ketani's spirit to return home to the Eastern Cape. It was a journey that was 17 years overdue.Inside the bus, which stands on concrete blocks instead of wheels, Ketani was left to die what a court described as a "cold and lonely death". That was May 1999.CROSSING THE RIVER: Betty Ketani's life ended in a dilapidated municipal bus on a smallholding south of JohannesburgNow, on a sunny but chilly afternoon in May 2016, her youngest daughter, Lusanda, was crying for a mother she never knew, leaning against the bus, fighting her emotions.STARK: The Blockhouse on the R59, close to where Betty Ketani was stabbedBulelwa, the middle child, was also in tears, her arm wrapped around a family elder.Ketani's son, Thulani, had always been too sick to travel, but this time he joined the others, standing a bit back, working through his feelings in his own private way.For the first time all three of Ketani's children were in Johannesburg together, in the city that "took" their mother.This was the final chapter. The agony of confronting the sites where her violent death played out, but also a chance to find peace. Or as her brother Mankinki puts it: freedom.In 1999 Ketani was stabbed on the side of a road and then kidnapped from hospital, before being taken to this bus out on a farm south of Johannesburg. After she died, her body was buried in a shallow grave.MURDER, SHE WROTE: Carrington Laughton, Betty Ketani's killerMore than 12 years later the chance discovery of a typed confession hidden under a carpet awoke the investigation into Ketani's disappearance that unravelled her murder. A week ago the author of the confession Carrington Laughton and two former policemen were sent to jail for the crime.The state's case was woven together with strands of circumstantial evidence including handwriting analysis, DNA tests and the testimony of accomplice witnesses.With the sentences handed down, the family felt it was time to bring Ketani's spirit home. There were no bones for them to use, so they packed a branch from a thorn tree, carefully wrapping it in plastic.Mankinki says the spirit can travel in the branch, which is placed inside the coffin along with a blouse, skirt and a blanket.After placing the coffin near the bus the family spoke to Ketani. The door was locked, so they knocked to announce they had arrived. Her children were introduced and she was asked to join them on the road.From there they drove to Kenilworth, to the house where Ketani's body was buried for several years and also the place where the confession was found.Once again the coffin was unloaded and carried across Leo Street. It was opened and soil from the garden was placed inside.As the family drives back to Queenstown, Mankinki will have the responsibility of speaking to his sister's spirit, informing it of any stops, delays or even to explain when a particular river is being crossed.There's a cemetery near the house in which Ketani's children have lived since their mother was killed and her spirit will be buried there. That ceremony will take place this weekend.While still at the house in Leo Street, dark clouds gathered above and it began to drizzle. The owner of the house, whose family found the confession in 2012, was there to meet the Ketanis. From the moment the confession emerged, Shama Marshall spoke about her desire for the family to get closure."Showers of blessing," she said as the white Toyota Avanza with a coffin on the back of a trailer drove off.KNOCK, KNOCK: Convicted murderer Carrington Laughton posed for this chilling Halloween portrait in 2010Alex Eliseev is an Eyewitness News reporter. His book, Cold Case Confession, is on sale now at bookstores and as an eBook. For more information go to: www.alexeliseev.co.za..