National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola says an investigation into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of three police officers who went missing last week and whose bodies were recovered from a river in Centurion this week will reveal whether it was an accident or not.
Masemola was giving the latest update on Tuesday in Centurion on the missing officials and the discovery of the bodies from the Hennops River in Centurion.
“We are still searching for the VW Polo and our investigation is continuing. We don’t want to speculate at this stage what led to the discovery of these bodies in this river, whether it was an accident or not, our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle,” said Masemola.
The National Commissioner said it had been a difficult six days for members of the South African Police Service and affected families as police searched everywhere for the three missing police officers, Constable Keamogetswe Buys, Constable Boipelo Senoge and Constable Cebekhulu Linda.
He said the high-level team tasked with investigating their disappearance spent sleepless nights combing the length and breadth of Gauteng, Free State and Limpopo.
Following all possible leads and after studying all evidence gathered, police investigation led them to area between the Grasmere Toll Plaza on the N1, past the Buccleugh interchange, onto John Voster drive.
On Monday, police investigation investigation and their search led them to the Hennops River in Centurion with the assistance of our drone pilots, cybercrime unit, HAWKS, Crime and counter-intelligence unit, SAPS and Gauteng Traffic Airwing as well as Bidvest Protea Coin Airwing.
“We first found pieces of vehicle parts believed to be of a VW polo along the N1 where we are standing at this moment that led us to the banks of the river where we found a Renault Kangoo panel van. Our SAPS and Tshwane divers immediately commenced with the search, where we discovered two bodies, one of the driver of the Renault panel van who it is just came to light that he is one of our employees attached to the Lyttleton Police Station and the second body was that of Constable Senoge. We had to abandon the search as it was already dark.
“This morning, the third body was discovered which is believed to be that of Constable Linda . We further found a fourth decomposed body, we are still trying to identify who this person is. Later this afternoon, we sadly found the fifth body of Constable Buys.
“The families were taken to the mortuary where they identified the bodies of their children and loved ones,” said Masemola.
