{"id":25097,"date":"2015-02-15T00:06:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-14T22:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/?p=25097"},"modified":"2015-02-18T13:13:57","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T11:13:57","slug":"police-sweep-bush-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2015\/02\/15\/police-sweep-bush-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Police sweep bush of death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police dogs were called in to sweep the area after a fourth decomposed body was discovered on Sunday.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The bush, dubbed the bush of death, has surrendered as much as five corpses in the last five years.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Four of them were discovered over the last three months.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The timeline of bodies discovered in the area spanning five years:
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 February 2015: Two decomposed bodies are discovered by wood collectors on Sunday 8 February. Signs indicate that the men were shot. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Toyota Hilux they were last seen in, have not been found. A disassembled rifle was found on the scene. The hands and feet of both men were tied with wire.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The owner of the vehicle said that police could not open a case of theft because he gave the men permission to use his vehicle. He could not produce the registration papers because it was inside the vehicle, to be produced at the border en-route to Maputo.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The family said that the men left for eMalahleni to pick up cargo whereafter they were supposed to return to the Uitkyk informal settlement, before leaving for Maputo. They never returned.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The family initially thought that they must have left without saying goodbye. They arrived at the police station on Monday, 9 February, to open a missing persons report. <\/span><\/p>\n

Police asked them to have a at look the two bodies they discovered the previous day.<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Although they positively identified the men as their missing family members, police have not yet made the names of the deceased public because of unfinished paperwork.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The owner of the rifle on the scene is a 90 year-old man from Gauteng. The rifle was not reported stolen. Police have not succeeded in getting hold of the man, as he has multiple addresses registered.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 The police are appealing to members of the public with information about the murders to contact the investigating officer, const. Mxolisi Skosana, on 013 249 1402.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 November 2014: Police make a gruesome discovery when a hi-jack suspect admitted to killing a man and throwing him down a deserted mine shaft. Two bodies, identified as Bronkhorstspruit businessmen, Steve Monkwe, and Mhluzi resident David Majola, are retrieved from the shaft during a complicated rescue operation.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Thabang Ntheko, Samsom Makua and George Maswanganyi, a Mozambican national, were charged with robbery, kidnapping and murder. They have been denied bail and remain in custody.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 October 2009: A skeleton is discovered by a herder searching for missing cattle. A shifting spanner and a roll of cable next to the body indicated foul play. The victim is yet to be identified.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sniffer dogs made double sure that no more nasty surprises lurk in the Black Wattle bush next to the N4 highway and the Hendrina road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2844,"featured_media":25098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Jana Boshoff","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2885,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-crime-news","category-news-headlines"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Crime News"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}