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Bodies of missing women found in mortuary

Kimberley - The shocking discovery of the bodies of two missing young women, Nosipho Precious Mahamba (20) of Magoda Street and Sibongile Leonard (25) of Gaborone Street, has tongues wagging in Galeshewe, in the Northern Cape.

The two women were last seen on October 3 before they vanished.

Posters put up by their families and the police, who had been looking for them, had been seen all over Kimberley.

Only two weeks later, after an intensive search by the Galeshewe police, it was discovered that they had been in the state mortuary all along.

The families were informed by the investigating officer, Sergeant Joseph Kolwane, on Monday that the bodies of their loved ones had been found.

The discovery of the bodies of the two deceased women, together with four others, is the solution to the mystery surrounding a road accident near Windsorton that had occurred on the same Wednesday night as their disappearance.

The police reported six people were fatally injured after a truck and an Opel Corsa bakkie collided at approximately 19:40 on the fateful night.

The Opel Corsa bakkie’s occupants were trapped in the vehicle, which had ended up under the truck during the accident.

Prank calls

Emergency and rescue personnel had to use hydraulic rescue equipment to free the bodies.

Although the loss is painful to the two families, it pains them more as to how it happened that such a mystery could not be solved by the police sooner.

The investigating officer at Windsorton focused his search on the last three deceased from the Taung area.

That is why the police could not connect the dots that the missing persons reported in Galeshewe were indeed the same people involved in the accident.

Captain Bashoabile Kale of the Galeshewe Police Station confirmed the reports and said the delay in joining the dots could be due to the fact that the first two identified bodies were from Taung and Pudimoe, thus police looked in the wrong areas.

"All six bodies have been identified by the families and the culpable homicide investigation continues, while the missing person’s file will be closed," said Kale.

Mahamba’s family has been traumatised by regular prank calls, which lasted until Sunday morning.

Callers continued to claim to have seen first-year HR student Mahamba at various taverns.

Closure

They even feared the possibility of human trafficking, which led to one of the women’s ex-boyfriends, a Nigerian national, being taken in for questioning.

Fingers were also pointed at a black Golf that many people had witnessed the women leaving in on the last day they were seen.

In her plea for the return of her child, Leonard’s mother, Maria, sobbed when she explained how her daughter would never have disappeared without contacting her children, aged three and nine.

The Mahamba family is relieved that they now know what has happened to their child and can make proper arrangements to lay her body to rest.

"Even though it hurts, at least now our minds no longer run wild as to what kind of torture she might be going through, whether she is drugged or used as a sex slave. At least we found closure," said her sister, Puseletso Mahamba.

Captain Bashoabile Kale of the Galeshewe Police Station confirmed the reports and said the delay in joining the dots could be due to the fact that the first two identified bodies were from Taung and Pudimoe, thus police looked in the wrong areas.

"All six bodies have been identified by the families and the culpable homicide investigation continues, while the missing person’s file will be closed," said Kale.

The police encouraged the community to report missing persons as soon as they noticed that someone was missing.

Northern Cape Express

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