Three Missing Police Officers Found In River

The National Police Commissioner General Fanie Masemola has confirmed that the three missing police officers are among the five bodies found in the river near Centurion.

“Three of the five bodies discovered in the Hennops River in Centurion are those of our constables who were reported missing. The bodies of Constables Linda Cebekhulu, Keamogetswe Buys, and Boipelo Senoge were positively identified by their families,” said the Commissioner.

The high-level team that had been tasked with investigating their disappearance has spent sleepless nights combing the length and breadth of Gauteng, Free State and Limpopo.

“Following all possible leads and after studying all evidence that we had gathered, our investigation led us to between the Grasmere Toll Plaza on the N1, past the Buccleugh interchange, onto John Voster drive,” General Masemola explained.

On Monday, police investigation and search led us to the Hennops River in Centurion. With the assistance of police drone pilots, cybercrime unit, HAWKS, Crime and counter-intelligence unit, SAPS and Gauteng Traffic Airwing as well as Bidvest Protea Coin Airwing, the gruesome discovery was made.

“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. Our SAPS and Tshwane divers immediately commenced with the search, where we discovered two bodies, one of the driver of the Renault panel van who it is just came to light that he is one of our employees attached to the Lyttleton Police Station and the second body was that of Constable Senoge. We had to abandon the search as it was already dark,” Masemola explained to the media.

On Tuesday morning, the third body was discovered which is believed to be that of Constable Linda. Police later found a fourth decomposed body, which they are still trying to identify. Further into the afternoon’s search, police found the fifth body of Constable Buys.

“We are still searching for the VW Polo and our investigation is continuing. We don’t want to speculate at this stage what led to the discovery of these bodies in this river, whether it was an accident or not, our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle,” the Commissioner added.

Masemola has thanked the families and the task team involved in the search for working tirelessly to ensure a breakthrough in this case.

Police investigations are still continuing and they are still searching for the VW Polo and investigations are continuing.