Blood-stained carpet led to Sandile Mantsoe being arrested for Karabo Mokoena's murder

A freshly cleaned carpet led to Sandile Mantsoe being the prime suspect in the murder of his on-and-off girlfriend‚ Karabo Mokoena‚ the High Court in Johannesburg heard on Wednesday.

Sergeant Matshidiso Maseko said she had met Mantsoe at his apartment shortly after viewing CCTV footage of his building‚ days after Mokoena had last been seen or heard from.

The footage showed Mantsoe entering his apartment with Mokoena in the early hours of April 28 last year‚ but she was never seen leaving the place. Instead‚ Mantsoe had been seen wheeling a dustbin into and out of his apartment.

“I asked him why the carpet was wet. His response was that [he had cleaned the carpet] because he is selling the apartment and the estate agent and buyer are coming to view the place‚” Maseko said.

She made no mention of whether she had asked Mantsoe about some blood stains that were still visible on the carpet‚ but said she had informed him that she was arresting him for kidnapping and read him rights.

Earlier that day‚ Maseko had called Mantsoe and asked him when he had last seen Mokoena. He had told her that he had last seen her on April 27 and had accompanied her to catch a taxi.

The CCTV footage indeed showed the two of them leaving the apartment at 4pm on the said day but the footage showed that the couple had returned to the Sandton apartment at 2am on April 28.

Asked whether it seemed Mokoena was being forced into the apartment‚ Maseko said she could not tell as the couple were silent when they entered the lift and headed for Mantsoe’s apartment.

Following the discovery of the suspicious-looking carpet‚ Maseko said they arrested Mantsoe and took him to the Sandton police station.

As she filled out her arresting statement‚ she received a call from Captain Bhekisisa Mhlongo.

“He was with the accused. He told me that the accused said he had killed the deceased‚” Maseko said.

She conceded that she had not heard the confession herself. Mantsoe is a 28-year-old forex trader who is a married father of three and estranged from his wife. He has denied killing Mokoena.

Mantsoe claimed that on the day she died‚ he had returned to his Sandton apartment from a business meeting and found she had committed suicide. He did not specify how she had died.

He claimed that out of fear and panic that he would be blamed for her death‚ he had disposed of her body by drenching it in pool acid and petrol‚ putting a tyre around it and setting it alight in a ditch in Lyndhurst.

Karabo’s body was so badly charred that a post-mortem failed to conclude how she had died or whether she had been alive when she was set alight.

Mantsoe faces charges of premeditated murder‚ defeating the ends of justice and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The trial continues.