More bones in skeleton mystery

Date: 09 October 2016 By: Isabel Venter

While the police in Louis Trichardt are still working on uncovering the identity of a set of human bones recovered near River Street, a third set of bones was discovered this week.

On Monday, farm workers  discovered a human skeleton while they were busy debushing a stretch of land on Mr Sarel Viljoen’s farm. They reported the matter to Viljoen, who in turn notified the police.

Vijoen’s farm is situated about 4 km from Louis Trichardt on the Levubu Road. He speculated that the bones might have belonged to an illegal immigrant, who might have made use of the abundant camouflage provided by the bushes to hide in. More speculation is that the remains could have belonged to a murder victim whose body was simply dumped in the bushes. No clothing was found near the bones.

At the time of going to press, the newspaper was not able to obtain high-quality photographs of the bones to enable an expert to formulate an opinion as to the age and gender of the remains.

In the meantime, the local police collected more human bones along River Street, following a tip-off by one of the newspaper’s readers. Three more pieces of bone and a shoe were discovered close to the spot where a set of human bones was found by employees of the Department of Environmental Affairs on Monday, 19 September.

Spokesperson for the Makhado police Const Irene Radzilane confirmed on Wednesday that the bones will be collected and forwarded to their forensic laboratory for further investigations. She further confirmed that they are still waiting for the laboratory results for these bones, as well as the set discovered on the farm Plaaspoort (about 32km south of Louis Trichardt) on Monday, 12 September.

In all three cases, said Radzilane, investigations are ongoing. In all cases, foul play cannot be ruled out at this stage. She added that the police had not received any recent missing person’s reports, which further hampers the investigations.

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Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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