Farm killing: Hunt hots up
2005-12-28 10:39
Bethlehem - The search continued on Wednesday for two men who shot dead a 51-year-old farmer at Osplaat, said police.
Wikus Stoffberg and his 44-year-old wife Ria were attacked, apparently by former employees, while travelling in their bakkie on Tuesday.
It was believed the men grabbed Stoffberg, pointed a gun at him and dragged him out of the bakkie.
One of the men shot him and dragged him into a donga next to the farm.
Constable Christopher Mophiring said the men took his wife to the farmhouse which they searched, stealing two firearms. They tied her hands with rope, forced her inside the bakkie and left.
"On their way toward the tarred road of the farm the woman managed to push one of the suspects on the passenger seat and fell out of the moving bakkie," said Mophiring.
She was treated for minor injuries.
The men drove off towards Bethlehem and the bakkie was later found hidden at the side of the road about nine kilometres from the farm.
- SAPA