Cape Town authorities recovered two bodies believed to be that of Leila Lees, 18, and Ethan Kirkland, 22, the Stellenbosch pair that’s been missing since Friday, 21 October 2022.
UPDATE: In a sharp turn of events, Cape Town police revealed the deaths of Leila Lees and Ethan Kirkland are now being handled as culpable homicide cases. – Read the full story.
UPDATE: In a statement released shortly after this article was published, Cape Town police spokesperson Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi confirmed that the bodies recovered from the quarry near Paul Kruger Street were those of Leila Lees and Ethan Kirkland.
“Earlier this morning at around 10:10, a community member spotted an object in a dam in the city centre and alerted the authorities. The local police members responded and secured the scene, when they noticed the wheels of a motor vehicle , which was the only part of the vehicle that was visible. The police requested the assistance of SAPS Provincial Diving unit and upon arrival at the scene, after assessing the circumstances, they retrieved the bodies of the two victims from the motor vehicle. Both victims were declared deceased on the scene by the medical personnel. Stellenbosch police registered an inquest for further investigation,” the statement read.
Details around the cause of death and the circumstances that led to the Stellenbosch couple’s discovery are part of an ongoing investigation, WO Swartbooi revealed.
Read the original story below:
Stellenbosch authorities make grisly discovery of two dead bodies
As reported by News24, a process is underway to determine the identities of two corpses that were discovered in a quarry on Monday morning.
Details around the grisly discovery were still sketchy at the time this article was published. However, according to reports, authorities have every reason to believe the bodies recovered from the quarry situated near the corners of Bird and Paul Kruger Street were those of the missing Stellenbosch couple.
Cape Town police have yet to issue a public statement on Monday’s developments.
This is a developing story.
What happened to Leila Lees and Ethan Kirkland?
As police continue to piece together the events that led to Monday’s grisly discovery, questions remain on what exactly happened to Lees and Kirkland.
The discovery of the bodies came about an hour after search teams, who’ve been looking for the Stellenbosch pair since loved ones filed missing person cases on Friday, recovered what’s believed to be their vehicle near the same quarry.
In a statement released on Saturday, 22 October 2022, Cape Town police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut revealed the last time the Stellenbosch couple was seen alive was on Friday, at The Niche apartment block, which is eerily situated within close proximity to the quarry where two bodies were discovered on Monday.
Reports confirmed that the maroon Subaru Forester with registration number CA 280247, which the couple was last seen driving three days ago, was hauled out of the quarry shortly before the grisly discovery.