ASA theology student accused of murdering four people in the US was once expelled from the-then University of Durban-Westville (UDW) for taking bribes while president of the students representative council. Five years later Muziwokuthula Madondo, 33, secured a student visa to study overseas.

Madondo is accused of shooting Jacquelyn Hilder, 60, a vice-president at FirstMerit Bank and South African Zenzele Mdadane, 25, in February. Both murders took place in Ohio.

He is also alleged to have shot dead Bobby Gonzalez, 57, and Gabriel Baca, 37, at a motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

In a shocking development, he has apparently confessed to the killings in an attempt to "cleanse his soul" and even wants to face the death penalty.

Madondo was arrested in Texas on March 28 and is awaiting extradition to New Mexico.

The Sunday Times has established that the former electrical engineering student was expelled from UDW in 2003 after a disciplinary committee found him guilty of corruption.

Former UDW vice-chancellor Saths Cooper this week described him as "manipulative" .

Madondo was accused of receiving a bribe from a catering company and using his position as SRC president to browbeat the university into entering into contracts that cost millions.

He was also found guilty of accepting kickbacks in the awarding of a security contract to a private company.

"The panel recommended he be expelled but he appealed," said Cooper this week. Ultimately, the ruling was upheld.

Detectives in the US who are investigating the murders this week told the Sunday Times that Madondo had confessed to the killings.

"We interviewed him for three hours, and he confessed everything from the beginning," said Detective Michael Shaeffer. "He said he wanted to come clean because he was trying to cleanse his soul, so he could get back to heaven."

He added: "During the interview, he made mention that he wants to come to Ohio because New Mexico doesn't have the death penalty."

Shaeffer, one of two detectives who interviewed him on March 30, said Madondo had been charged with aggravated murder, robbery and burglary. More charges are expected for the murder of Mdadane, whose body was found by hunters with multiple gunshot wounds.

Mdadane matriculated at Maritzburg College in Pietermaritzburg in 2004.

Madondo is believed to have been living in the US illegally because his visa had expired.

Shaeffer said Madondo told them he did not want his family to find out what he had done, allegedly describing himself as a disgrace to them.

"He told us about his mother and father and, I guess, he has a couple of brothers that are still in school in SA. He said he had come to the US to improve himself so he could give his family a better life," said Shaeffer.

This week family and friends in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal, said they were shocked.

Thokozani Mkhize, Madondo's cousin and the family spokes-man, said they had been looking for him for years and only learnt about his arrest on Friday.

Mkhize said they were all "down and we still can't accept, can't believe it's really him that has committed these crimes".

"He is an upstanding man, was a very good SRC president who took UDW to another standard, and we have no idea what got into him. We are just so confused." Mkhize said he had kept in touch with him through Facebook until last year.