Hands in plastic bag: Cops' grisly mystery

Hands in plastic bag: Cops' grisly mystery

July 02 2010 at 11:04AM

By Poloko Tau

A dog running through the streets of Doornkop with a human hand clutched in its jaws - this was the first of three gruesome discoveries on Thursday that has Soweto detectives baffled.

By the afternoon, a handless male body and a pair of mutilated hands had been found in different parts of Doornkop, leaving the community shocked and children traumatised.

Children had spotted the dog in Doornkop's Block 2, dragging a strange object, just before 9am.

Residents said they were called by the children after they saw the dog drop the hand in the street.

Police were called and another hand was soon found among garbage in a nearby field bordering Obed Mosiane Primary School. The community uses the area as an illegal dump.

Police were called and another hand was soon found among garbage in a nearby field bordering Obed Mosiane Primary School. The community uses the area as an illegal dump.

"One hand looked like it had been chopped across the palm while the other one had been cut from the wrist. The wounds both looked fairly fresh," a witness said.

"They both looked like adult hands, and now the question is: whose hands could they be? We're scared and shocked by this grisly find in our neighbourhood."

With the pair of hands in a plastic bag, police now had a mystery to solve - who did they belong too?

There was also the possibility that the person whose hands had been chopped off could still be alive.

The mystery was partially solved when a group of boys playing soccer in Block 5, 2km away, stumbled on yet another grisly find.

"It looks like one of the boys kicked the ball into the mealie fields and ran to fetch it. Then he fell and landed on the naked body of a man," said police spokesperson Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela.

Makhubela confirmed that the body, which was found at about 2pm, had no hands. The mutilated body had several wounds to the head which had disfigured the face.

There were also wounds around the neck and in the shoulder area, which police said appeared to have been caused by a sharp object.

Makhubela said the body and the wounds looked recent, but he would not comment on what police thought of the circumstances around the killing. They would also not say whether the deceased was killed elsewhere and the body dumped.

With the victim still unidentified, police have urged people with missing male family members in their 30s to check with them at the Dobsonville police station.

They said they were investigating a case of murder.

No arrests had been made by on Thursday night.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on July 02, 2010

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Comments by Sonny

Was the man caught stealing or did the perpetrators want to sell the body parts?

These murderers must be brought to book, soon.