4th suspect held for Tokai murder
Four suspects are expected to appear in court in connection with the murder of Franziska Blöchliger, 16, near Tokai Forest.
|||Cape town - A fourth suspect has been added to the list of individuals expected to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday in connection with this week’s murder of a teenager near Tokai Forest.
Franziska Blöchliger, 16, was found dead near the forest on Monday.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut said: “A fourth suspect will make a court appearance on a charge of possession of suspected stolen property linked to this case.”
Traut said three men, who were arrested on Tuesday and detained for questioning, would appear on murder charges and there was a possibility more charges would be added.
Franziska’s body was found by police and Kirstenhof Crime Watch in Dennedal Road on Monday, just hours after she was reported missing. She was robbed of her iPhone and her mother’s red tracking watch.
Since her murder, her family, in a quest for justice for their daughter, had put up a reward offer. Initially, the reward was set at R50 000, but was increased on Wednesday to R100 000.
On the same day, the family went to the mortuary to identify her body.
Her father, Florian Blöchliger, distraught about what he saw at the mortuary, said: “I have never seen anything like it, the way her head was beaten.”
Blöchliger said he was hopeful for the police’s progress. “Police did tell us about the arrests, we are hopeful, but we can only rest once we know it is them (the detained suspects).”
Since the murder, issues of safety at Tokai Forest have surfaced.
Crime Watch chairman Sean Powell said: “People are alarmed, they are shocked by this.”
Powell said the forest did not have any structured form of security, but was dependent on neighbourhood watch patrols. “There is no security company patrolling the area. Many people who come here are Crime Watch members and what we have seen with this incident is that things like this can happen at any time. We need a formal structure and we are now going to work with all relevant stakeholders to tighten up security in this area.”
Cape Argus