A daughter fears there has been a ‘massive cover-up’ after her parents were abducted and murdered in South Africa.
Tony and Gillian Dinnis’s body parts were later sold to a witch doctor, according to a police file.
The 73 and 78-year-old were last seen on their remote farm in Middlerus, KwaZulu-Natal, last August.
Days later their children began receiving messages in Zulu demanding an £85,000 ransom be paid into their mum’s bank account to secure their safe release.
No trace of the couple, originally from Kent, has been found and despite two suspected members of the kidnap gang being arrested, nobody has been charged in connection with the disappearance.
One grisly hypothesis was outlined in a police affidavit read during a court hearing for one of the suspects who was said to have confessed to snatching the expats before they were murdered.
He claimed Mr and Mrs Dinnis were ambushed at home by three gunmen and when the ransom payment was not made, they were dismembered and their body parts sold as ‘muti’.
Body parts are sometimes used for medicinal – ‘muti’ – purposes, with ‘potions’ sold to customers seeing to bring wealth or good luck or ward off ill-health.
A supposed confession from one of the suspects described how the gang travelled to Johannesburg where they sold the remains to a ‘sangoma’ – or witch doctor – for a little over £2,000.
Outlining the affidavit, Detective Warrant Officer Johannes de Lange said the second suspect, who was Mr and Mrs Dinnis’s gardener, admitted he was one of three men involved in the kidnapping.
‘He also indicated that they went to the Dinnis residence and took a brush cutter, chainsaw and a TV,’ Mr De Lange went on.
‘He revealed that the other two men were armed with firearms. Thereafter, they left with the couple and went to another residence, where they murdered the couple.’
The couple’s daughter Kate Anderson, 52, has shared her frustration with the investigation and revealed she is haunted by the image of one of her parents having to watch the other’s murder.
Speaking to the Rapport newspaper, she said: ‘My parent were slaughtered. They were old, defenceless, and only had each other. Who does something like this to people?
‘They have both just gone. It is as if strange beings took them there is no sign of them.
‘The police used horses, motorcycles and dogs to comb the mountains and woods and a BBQ pit and their vegetable garden were dug up and the local dam was also searched.
‘Apparently, they could not get good fingerprints from the house. I kept asking the police to allocate more resources and asked for my mum’s phone to be tracked to try and find her.’
Provincial Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Simphiwe Mhlongo confirmed that police had initially arrested two suspects last year who were not charged and released.
However, one was subsequently re-arrested and allegedly made a confession about the ‘muti’ deaths of the couple and that he appeared in court several times, he revealed.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the charges were withdrawn due to ‘insufficient evidence’ and that the investigation continues.
Mrs Anderson said she has seen the suspect’s harrowing statement in which he claimed her parent’s bodies were dismembered and sold to a witch doctor.
She told Rapport: ‘If so, my question is where is the sangoma? Is there a massive cover up? Perhaps because the police are from the same area they are afraid by the muti claims?
‘It just feels to me that everything has been messed up. I have sent many emails to the police and others beseeching them not to abandon the investigation and get justice.’
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