Atteridgeville investigators have been lauded for their swift response to a heinous crime that still sends chills down the spines of the Gauteng community.
Atteridgeville police make gruesome discovery
On Friday 5 February, a team of officers was called out to a charred property in Atteridgeville’s Extension 7. At the time, it was unclear what the source of the fire was but soon that became a secondary focus of the investigation when police stumbled on two bodies, burnt beyond recognition.
According to police spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters, the only confirmation they could make at the time, was that these were children. No other body was discovered in the property.
“The bodies were burnt beyond recognition and at the time of discovery, the deceased were unknown with little-to-no information on the circumstances surrounding their gruesome deaths,” Brig. Peters wrote in a statement.
First 48: All evidence points to mom as alleged killer
Further examinations of the bodies determined that the minors were female, aged five and eight. The next step, according to Brig. Peters, was to track down the children’s parents. Why were their deaths not reported? Where was the mother this entire time?
These questions gnawed at investigators, particularly due to the fact that “this was a brutal crime committed against minors.”
By Sunday 7 February, investigators had gathered enough evidence to suggest that the death of the little girls allegedly came at the hands of their mother.
Brig. Peters would not be reeled into revealing the details of the evidence collected but two days after the gruesome discovery, an arrest warrant was issued against the 25-year-old mother.
“Within about two days police had valuable information that assisted in determining that the deceased were siblings, and also led to the arrest on Sunday, 7 February, of a 25-year-old woman at Stadium Plaza shopping centre in Atteridgeville,” Peters confirmed.
The woman, whose identity remains unknown, appeared briefly at the Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court on a charge of murder. The case was postponed and rescheduled for Monday 15 February.
