A Soweto man allegedly killed his girlfriend of two months, then helped her worried family look for her when all along her decomposing body was under the bed he was sleeping on every night.
Ithabeleng Motleleng, 20, was last seen on Sunday, May 25, and her body was found wrapped in a blanket and carpet under her boyfriend's bed. He was the last person she was with and whom he allegedly pretended to be worried about when her family said they could not find her.
Speaking to Sowetan, Motleleng's heartbroken grandmother said they could not believe how they thought the man was genuinely concerned about their child, only to find that she was lying dead in his shack all along.
“I am disappointed and pained because even the way he acted, he seemed innocent and appeared to be helping to look while he knows where [Motleleng] was,” 56-year-old Francina Nyelimane said.
The 27-year-old man is expected to appear at the Protea magistrate’s court today on a charge of murder.
According to the family, Motleleng, a mother of a two-year-old boy who lives with her paternal family in Rustenburg, had been in a relationship with her alleged killer for two months.
On Sunday, she left her Protea South home to visit her boyfriend, who lives in the same neighbourhood, about three streets away.
I am disappointed and pained because even the way he acted, he seemed innocent and appeared to be helping to look while he knows where [Motleleng] was
— Francina Nyelimane, grandmother
Nyelimane said that when by Monday afternoon Motleleng had not contacted them and her phone rang unanswered, they called her boyfriend.
“He told us that they had fought in the morning and he had thrown her out. We believed him,” she said.
From that day onwards, the man kept calling the family, checking if Motleleng had returned. He even went to her house to check if she was not yet back.
When Motleleng was still not back on Wednesday, the family opened a missing person case.
On Thursday, police went to his place to question him, but he allegedly fled as soon as he saw them.
Police went to the house the following day and found him packing his clothes.
During the search of the house, Motleleng’s cousin, Nthabiseng Nyelimane, said she noticed that the bed had a bulge in the middle, then told police.
The man is alleged to have said that the bulge was being caused by his shoes and a carpet.
Nthabiseng reached under the bed and felt something soft, then pulled and that was when they discovered Motleleng’s body wrapped in a blanket and carpet.
He was arrested.
Motleleng’s other cousin, Dimpho Lipholo, said: “Ithabeleng's body was found naked and she didn’t have nails and hair, Boy [the accused] told the police that her clothes had blood on them and he had thrown them out with the garbage that was collected by municipal waste trucks.”
According to Lipholo, the couple used to fight and in early May the accused had hit Motleleng with a golf stick.
Yesterday, angry residents descended on the man's shack and demolished then burnt it.
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