The search for three missing police officers came to a tragic end when their bodies, along with two others, were found in the Hennops River in Centurion. (Tshwane EMS/Supplied)
- The search for three constables who went missing came to a tragic end on Tuesday after their remains were identified among the five bodies retrieved from the Hennops River in Centurion.
- One of the bodies is that of a police groundsmanwho was last seen on Saturday.
- National police commissioner Fannie Masemola said there was currently no established connection between the three officers, the groundsman, and the fifth body.
Police have confirmed that the remains of three police officers who went missing last week on Thursday have been positively identified among the five bodies that were retrieved from the Hennops River in Centurion.
On Tuesday evening, General Fannie Masemola said the remains ofCebekhulu Linda, 24, Keamogetswe Buys, 30, and Boipelo Senoge, 20, were located in the river after pieces of the VW Polo they were travelling in were found along the N1 highway in Centurion.
READ | Fifth body found in Centurion during search for missing cops
Police are still searching for the WV Polo but have found another vehicle in the river.
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"We first found pieces of vehicle parts believed to be of a VW Polo along the N1 where we are standing at this moment, that led us to the banks of the river where we found a Renault Kangoo panel van," he said.
The officers were travelling from Bloemfontein to Limpopo where they had been deployed when they went missing.
During a search in the Hennops River on Monday two bodies were found, Masemola said. One of those was of the driver of the Renault van, who was a South African Police Service groundsman from the Lyttleton police station. The second body was that of Senoge.
Masemola said the search had to be abandoned but commenced on Tuesday morning. The third body retrieved was that of Linda.
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"We further found a fourth decomposed body; we are still trying to identify who this person is. Later this afternoon, we sadly found the fifth body, [that] of Buys," Masemola said.
"The families were taken to the mortuary where they have identified the bodies of their children and loved ones."
He said the search for the missing VW Polo continued as do police investigations into the circumstances surrounding the officer's deaths.
"Whether it was an accident or not, our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle," he said.
"For now, it might look like an accident. We don't know until we find the car."
He said a high-level police team, consisting of members from various provinces, spent sleepless nights combing through Gauteng, Free State, and Limpopo following all possible leads.
He said the team was led to the Hennops River after tracing the constables' movements through surveillance cameras which last detected them on the Brakfontein interchange heading north towards the N1 highway.
Masemola said the police had not made a link between the three officers, the groundsman, and the unidentified body at this stage.
"The body of our groundsman was found far down the river. We don't think his vehicle entered the river here. It may have entered another point because the place where he had gone to visit his friends is more towards the Waterkloof Air Force Base," he said, adding that the police were investigating a case of culpable homicide until new information was presented.
