Student's mystery death probed
2007-12-11 09:58
Cape Town - A post-mortem has been done on the body of a woman that was found in a field between Bronkhorstspruit and Bapsfontein after she had gone missing last week.
The body of Anisha van Niekerk, 22, a student from Cape Town, was found last week on Monday evening.
Sergeant Marinda Stoltz from Welbekend police station said a member of the public "who wanted to urinate" found the body of an unknown woman and called the police.
Five days after she had gone missing, Danie Krugel offered to find her with his so-called DNA-retrieving system.
Krugel requested that the media not be informed about his involvement.
Strange circumstances
One week later he apparently got a reading that Van Niekerk was in Gauteng by using a sample of her hair.
Van Niekerk travelled from Cape Town to Kempton Park for her sister Elzaan's marriage three days before her disappearance.
She disappeared under strange circumstances on November 25.
Cara Vermaak from eblockwatch's task team, kept a diary of the search for Van Niekerk on the website www.eblockwatch.co.za.
"Anisha attended Elzaan's kitchen tea at her friend Dalene's house on Saturday November 24.
"Anisha stayed overnight at Dalene's place. She and her family enjoyed drinks at a restaurant on Sunday afternoon.
"She sent a message to Dalene about 17:15 to tell her she would let her know when she was at home so they could socialise.
"At about 19:00 Anisha's mother, Jane Williamson, called Dalene to talk to her daughter.
"Dalene said Anisha was not with her. Williamson said her husband, Gerhard Williamson, had dropped Anisha off at Dalene's house in Glen Marais, Kempton Park."
Vermaak said Dalene started looking for Anisha and asked Mr Williamson to point out where Anisha was dropped off.
"It was about two blocks away from Dalene's house," said Vermaak.
Van Niekerk's brother, Armand, arrived from London to help search for his sister.
According to Stoltz the woman was wearing only a jersey and had no form of identification on her. The body had already started decomposing.
"She was not murdered on the scene and had been there for between two or three weeks," said Stoltz.
The body was identified on Friday by means of fingerprints.
According to Vermaak she had been hit over the head with a rock.