The three suspects arrested in Coffee Bay, Eastern Cape, on Tuesday, April 16. Pictures: RUSA
Three people were arrested on Tuesday, April 16, in connection with the robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder of a woman on Saturday.
The woman’s husband was among those arrested in Coffee Bay, Eastern Cape. The fourth suspect is still at large.
Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) spokesman, Prem Balram said their officers travelled 560km and arrested the husband, 37, his accomplice, 40, and a 42-year-old woman.
“RUSA was contacted by a 34-year-old female on Sunday (April 14) requesting urgent assistance. She informed officers that her husband of three years had robbed her of her jewels, a white GWM car and strangled her with the assistance of two men who loaded her limp body into a vehicle, thinking she was dead,” said Mr Balram.
“According to the woman, her husband had accused her of having an affair with her ex-boyfriend. The woman woke up on the seat of a silver Toyota Etios while a (man) was attempting to dump her body in a sugar cane field. She sustained serious injuries.”
A team of reaction officers found the victim’s car in a rural area in Umdoni on Monday.
The officers then followed up on 129 tip-offs between Jozini in the KZN North Coast to Mtata in the Eastern Cape, since Sunday night. They tracked the three suspects to a home in Coffee Bay, said Mr Balram.
“They were hiding out at a one-room home on a mountain side. The officers later recovered the silver Toyota Etios, used to dump the victim’s body, in a rural part of Coffee Bay. The vehicle was seized and reaction officers arrested (the woman) when they learned that she had loaned her vehicle to transport the wife and she had also been sending intimidating messages to the victim in an attempt to discourage her from pursuing the criminal case,” said Mr Balram.
All suspects are detained at SAPS Coffee Bay.