Boy pleaded for help as hijackers sped away

Chantel Morris heard her son, Taegrin, plead for help. Then he was ripped from her hands.

An hour-and-a-half later, the four-year-old's body was found next to the family's hijacked car.

Yesterday, Gauteng police were investigating two hijackings that involved the abduction of children.

In Boksburg, they were hunting for at least two people believed to be involved in Taegrin's killing, while in Bronkhorstspruit they were looking for a five-year-old boy who had been missing since Tuesday after he and his father were hijacked.

Chantel was buckling Taegrin into the back seat of their white Golf GTI when the hijacking took place at about 7.30pm on Saturday.

Chantel turned around to find a man pointing a gun at her.

"I said to him: 'Take everything but just let me take my child'," she said.

Her eight-year-old daughter, Erin, who was also in the back of the car, was able to escape. But Taegrin's seat belt jammed.

"He kept saying: 'Mommy, mommy, please help me.' But I couldn't. Then they ripped him from my hands."

The door slammed shut and the car sped off.

"We had people phoning, saying they saw the car, and that there was something hanging on the side," said Elwin, Taegrin's father.

Elwin later arrived at Boksburg Lake to find his son's mutilated body lying next to the car.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kensane Magoai said police were investigating but by last night no arrests had been made.

Also yesterday, President Jacob Zuma called on the public to help police find five-year-old Mongezi Phike, whose father's car was hijacked with him inside on Tuesday.

He is yet to be found.