Missing boy's body found in trench
The two-day search for five-year-old Matthew Ryan Olivier has ended tragically.
|||Johannesburg - The two-day search for five-year-old Matthew Ryan Olivier has ended tragically.
The little boy’s body was found around 2pm on Tuesday in a water-filled trench 500m from his grandparents’ residence in the Groenplaas district of Randfontein.
Randfontein police spokeswoman Captain Appel Ernst confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that divers - who had been combing the trench since the morning -found his body.
The body was removed and taken to the Roodepoort mortuary, and an inquest docket was opened.
In an interview before the discovery of his grandson’s body, Lawrence Ansara said their family had had a “very, very rough” time since his disappearance. According to Ansara, he had been working at a nearby farm in the early evening of December 27, and had left his wife and five children - including two of their foster children - at their home.
The children were playing board games when Matthew asked to play outside with his two girl cousins.
The two boys who had been playing inside with Matthew later went outside but didn’t find him with his cousins.
When the family failed to find him after an hour-long search, he was reported as missing to the police.
Neighbours, community members and missing-children organisations joined the police in the search, while pictures of Matthew were circulated on social media sites.
A post-mortem will be conducted to find out the cause of his death.
vuyo.mkhize@inl.co.za
The Star