Pretoria student vanishes
2011-07-21 09:36
Hilda Fourie and Gerhard Pretorius, Beeld
Pretoria - A University of Pretoria student has disappeared without a trace, after going to fetch his car from a garage in the city at about 07:20 on Monday morning.
Duncan Allan, 20, a third year BCom student in investment management, was last seen as he collected his car at Lynnwood Motors in Atterbury Road, Menlo Park, after it had been serviced.
Closed-circuit television footage showed how Duncan waited for his car at the garage, but not how he drove off.
Since then his phone has been switched off, his bank card has not been used and his parents, friends and hostel friends have heard nothing from him. He is a member of the house committee at Olienhout hostel in Lynnwood Road.
'Hell'
“It’s hell,” said his mother Pam Allan, 52, on Wednesday.
“You wake up at night and wonder where he is. It feels like my heart has been broken in two. All that we are looking for, is an eyewitness, because someone must have seen him somewhere.”
Duncan's father Tim Allan, 52, says they received a phone call from one of his friends to find out if they knew where he was because he hadn’t come to class.
Duncan also didn’t turn up on Wednesday to see a student to whom he taught extra lessons.
Since Duncan disappeared, notices have been put on Facebook, Twitter and the anti-crime network eBlockwatch to help find him.
The family has been overwhelmed by calls.
Search parties
Family friend Margo Johnson said family members, friends and former pupils of King Edward VII School (KES) in Johannesburg, where Duncan had gone to school, had formed search parties.
Several parking areas in the east of Pretoria, as well as hospitals and mortuaries have been visited, but in vain.
“At his stage we are searching for his car, because it is a starting point to finding out where he could be,” said Johnson.
"We suspect his car was hijacked but don’t want to jump to conclusions.
“Duncan has never run away before or shown strange behaviour.”
The missing student drives a green VW Jetta with the registration number DJY 086 GP.
• Anyone with information can call investigating officer Warrant Officer Denny Phatshwane on 082 319 9647.
