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All 42-year-old Moshupi Magdeline Sedibe wanted to do was to be able to hang her laundry up to dry, but a neighbour's branch blocked the line in her garden in Bloemfontein.
One night, on November 6, 2017, she decided to go and discuss the troublesome branch with her neighbour, 24-year-old Katlego Selokoane, but she never came home.
Her children - aged 8 and 13 at the time - waited in vain and when their aunt arrived the next day to drop her own children off for Sedibe to do the school run, she became worried.
Free State police Sergeant Sinah Mpakane said they told their aunt their mother went to speak to Selekoane the night before, but she never returned.
He even claimed to have walked her halfway home to the gate and said he did not know where she was.
A missing person's case was opened at Kagisanong police station.
Mpakane said that according to evidence heard in the Bloemfontein High Court, during the investigation, Selokoane used a sharp object to kill Sedibe after a quarrel over the tree.
He then burned her body before throwing her charred remains in Radibata dam, where it was later discovered.
Mpakane said the hard work of detective Constable Lekhotla Sehlabo brought Selokoane to book, with the help of forensic analysis to support it.
On Friday, justice was finally done when the Bloemfontein High Court found Selokoane guilty of murder and of violating a corpse.
He was sentenced to 18 years' direct imprisonment for murder, and three years for violating a corpse.
His sentence has not been ordered to run concurrently, so he is expected to spend 21 years in prison.
"The South African Police Service is are proud to have members such as Constable Lekhotla Sehlabo who worked tirelessly to ensure that Katlego Selokoane is brought to book and justice is done for the family of the victim," Major General Jones Qhobosheane, Deputy Provincial Commissioner, Crime Detection, said in a note of commendation.
