'Prophet' flees after bizarre cave deaths

For nearly a month a self-proclaimed prophet – now a wanted murder suspect – has hidden out in a cave outside Pretoria with the bodies of what are believed to be two congregants of the Zion Christian Church.

Police recovered the badly decomposed bodies on Tuesday‚ folded around each other‚ from a tunnel linking a series of caves in the Hennops River Valley‚ near Erasmia. By Tuesday afternoon the rescue team predicted it would take eight more hours to retrieve the remains. They began the recovery process late on Monday.

The discoveries came as police search-and-rescue members followed up on information that there might be other ZCC members‚ who apparently disappeared while performing religious ceremonies‚ at the cave.

The caves‚ which are a natural heritage site‚ are among dozens in the Magaliesburg mountain range‚ and are of religious importance to the church and its congregants.

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