Siam Lee’s mom - broke and on the wrong side of the law

While Carmen Lee has become a regular in the gallery of Durban Magistrate’s court – closely following the bail application of the man accused of killing her daughter Siam – she has now found herself on the wrong side of the law.

After a rental dispute with her landlord‚ Lee is alleged to have caused R9‚000 damage to an electronic gate motor.

The court heard that she had fallen behind in her monthly dues and that her landlord had cut off all utilities to her unit within the complex and changed the access code for the gate.

Lee was vocal in court‚ insisting that she needed the criminal charges “wrapped up by Friday” as she was relocating to a private holistic care facility in the Eastern Cape.

While first electing to conduct her own defence‚ and then changing her mind and accepting state-funded legal aid‚ Lee said that she had no money for bail.

The court heard that she had a previous conviction for indecent exposure which was decades old‚ and had no pending cases.

She was released on a warning‚ and would be staying with a friend until she travelled to the Eastern Cape.

Her daughter Siam Lee was last seen on January 4 outside a Durban North house operating as a brothel where the pair worked.

While the search for her spanned the province‚ her charred remains were found in a sugarcane field in New Hanover in the KZN Midlands two days later.

The well-publicised bail application of the man accused of her kidnapping and murder is scheduled to continue in the same court later this week.

The 29-year-old faces a raft of charges‚ including the kidnapping and murder of Lee‚ as well as the rape of another woman.