Garden held grisly secret

23 January 2017 - 11:43 By KHANYI NDABENI
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Crime scene police tape.
Crime scene police tape.
Image: Supplied

Every Sunday Molefe Molefe would visit the home of his sister's boyfriend. They would sit in the garden, share advice, fix their bikes and discuss his sister's disappearance.

Molefe, 29, never suspected her body was buried under his feet.

On Thursday the boyfriend handed himself over to the police and confessed to killing Meisie Molefe, 36.

He told the police he had hit her with a sharp object before dousing her body with paraffin and setting it alight. He dug a hole in his garden in Stinkwater, north of Pretoria, to hide her remains.

The boyfriend, aged 38, cannot be named before he is charged in the Moretele Magistrate's Court today.

The charges are expected to be murder, defeating the ends of justice and perjury.

Molefe said he never thought the man could ever raise a hand to her.

"I am in shock and disbelief. I never thought that he could do this. Since my sister's disappearance he has been coming to my house every day, playing with the kids and buying them sweets and clothes.

"When we talked about my sister's disappearance, he was first to console me, assure me that police would find her and that I should not lose hope. He even suggested my sister had gone to a sangoma initiation school without telling anyone," said Molefe.

The boyfriend reported Meisie missing on October 26 last year and told her family she had left on October 6 without saying where she was going.

He and the family looked for her in the morgues, police stations and hospitals.

Molefe said the couple were "madly in love" and had a two-year-old daughter. The boyfriend had treated Meisie's older daughters, aged 13 and 10, as his own.

The only serious argument the couple had was over an R18,000 funeral policy payout two days before she disappeared, he said.

"This whole experience has opened my eyes. I loved this man like abrother. I trusted him and shared almost everything with him. When we saw each other on Friday, he said: 'Eish, I am sorry.'

"I know sorry cannot bring back my sister, but I am not angry at him (the boyfriend)," Molefe said.

Police spokesman Captain Kay Makhubela said the man had handed himself in after he heard the police were looking for him.

Makhubela said the man confessed to killing Meisie on October 6 and led the police to her grave.

On Friday forensic officers dug up the remains and tests will verify if they belong to Meisie.

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