Cops looking for cannibal

2003-09-02 20:26

Zoubair Ayoob

Durban - Esikhawini police are searching for the area's own Hannibal Lecter after human body parts were found cooking in a pot on Tuesday.

Police said the man could be linked to at least one other similar murder in the area last month.

Superintendent Jay Naicker said a 46-year-old woman from Gobandlovu Reserve went missing on Saturday but the matter was only reported to police by her husband on Monday.

Later that afternoon a neighbour told the husband his wife's scarf and handkerchief had been seen near the entrance to Esikhawini. The man and the neighbours returned to the spot where the items were found on Tuesday and again located them.

At that point a man known to the husband emerged from bushes, spotted the searchers and fled. The husband and his companions went to the spot from where the man emerged and came upon the pot on a fire. On investigating they discovered human body parts cooking in the pot and other severed limbs and portions of a human torso lying in the bush nearby.

Naicker said the suspect has been identified and police visited his house but he appeared to have fled. The area where the pot was found was searched by a police dog but no other bodies were found.

The man is also a suspect in a similar murder where a female body with several parts hacked off was found in the same area on August 12.

On that occasion a foetus was also found a few metres away from the woman's body. The woman's head, right hand and leg and that portion of the torso had been cut off. The genitals were also missing.

- The Witness