adminFREE State police are seeking public help in identifying a man whose body was meant to be used in Thabo Bester’s escape.
The police said the unknown body was found dumped in the Modder River, near Bloemfontein, in April 2022.
Free State police spokesperson, Brigadier Motantsi Makhele, said the body had initially been found in Lovedale Road, Bloemfontein after the unknown victim was killed in a hit-and-run accident on October 9, 2021.
“The body was then claimed by one of the suspects in the Thabo Bester Escape case at the Bloemfontein Government Mortuary. It was found again on 28 April, 2022 in the Modder River,” he said.
Bester, a convicted rapist and killer, was serving a life sentence in the Mangaung Correctional Centre when he made a daring escape by faking his own death in May 2022.
He lived in various properties with his lover, Dr Nandipha Magudumana, and was seen shopping at a Sandton supermarket in June 2022.
Initially, the Department of Correctional Services denied that Bester was alive.
After months on the run, Bester fled South Africa and was eventually arrested in Arusha, Tanzania, with his girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana in April. – IOL
Bongani Ndlovu
Mathew Masinge