Missing Port St Johns resident Pamela Burns, 68, has been found dead with two gunshot wounds to the upper body.
The retired commercial pilot’s body was discovered dumped near a bush about 500 metres from the Mthatha Dam next to Rosedale village outside Mthatha yesterday morning.
A young suspect has already been arrested and police are on the trail of others.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela said her half-naked body was discovered by a passerby at 11 am who alerted the village’s headman and the police.
Burns went missing from her home in Second Beach Road on Friday night, sparking a search by over 100 of her friends and associates.
Her grey Hyundai with its NPS 7504 registration, which was stolen, was found on Saturday abandoned in Zimbane residential township near Mthatha’s affluent suburb of Southernwood.
“We have opened a murder case,” said Fatyela .
“A 23-year-old man was arrested in Bhongweni township on Saturday but we are tracking down other suspects. We believe we might make more arrests very soon.”
Earlier today, PSJ police spokesman Captain Mduduzi Godlwana revealed that two suspects had been arrested in Mthatha after police received a tip off.
Fatyela said that after being questioned, one of the two was released as he could not be linked to the victim’’s disappearance.
Rosedale villager Zola Ndaba, who discovered Burns’s body hidden in the long grass near bushes, said he had gone to collect firewood when he saw what looked like a small blanket protruding from the grass near his footpath.
“I went to look and then saw a leg. It was white and initially I thought it might be a monkey since there are bushes here. But then I saw that it was a woman’s body,” he said.
He called his older brother and they raised the alarm.
When the Daily Dispatch arrived on the scene shortly after 4pm this afternoon, crime experts were busy combing the scene while the victim’s body waited to be transported to a mortuary.
A small crowd of curious villagers had also gathered around the marked scene.
The victim’s son, Mike Grobelaar, told police that his mother lived alone close to them. He said alarm bells had been raised when he noticed that someone tried to withdraw money using his mother’s bank card in Libode around 2am on Saturday and again around 11am on the same day.
A friend of Pam Burns, John Costello said Burns was a fun-loving retired commercial pilot. He said the community was distraught.
Missing woman found murdered
The retired commercial pilot’s body was discovered dumped near a bush about 500 metres from the Mthatha Dam next to Rosedale village outside Mthatha yesterday morning.
A young suspect has already been arrested and police are on the trail of others.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela said her half-naked body was discovered by a passerby at 11 am who alerted the village’s headman and the police.
Burns went missing from her home in Second Beach Road on Friday night, sparking a search by over 100 of her friends and associates.
Her grey Hyundai with its NPS 7504 registration, which was stolen, was found on Saturday abandoned in Zimbane residential township near Mthatha’s affluent suburb of Southernwood.
“We have opened a murder case,” said Fatyela .
“A 23-year-old man was arrested in Bhongweni township on Saturday but we are tracking down other suspects. We believe we might make more arrests very soon.”
Earlier today, PSJ police spokesman Captain Mduduzi Godlwana revealed that two suspects had been arrested in Mthatha after police received a tip off.
Fatyela said that after being questioned, one of the two was released as he could not be linked to the victim’’s disappearance.
Rosedale villager Zola Ndaba, who discovered Burns’s body hidden in the long grass near bushes, said he had gone to collect firewood when he saw what looked like a small blanket protruding from the grass near his footpath.
“I went to look and then saw a leg. It was white and initially I thought it might be a monkey since there are bushes here. But then I saw that it was a woman’s body,” he said.
He called his older brother and they raised the alarm.
When the Daily Dispatch arrived on the scene shortly after 4pm this afternoon, crime experts were busy combing the scene while the victim’s body waited to be transported to a mortuary.
A small crowd of curious villagers had also gathered around the marked scene.
The victim’s son, Mike Grobelaar, told police that his mother lived alone close to them. He said alarm bells had been raised when he noticed that someone tried to withdraw money using his mother’s bank card in Libode around 2am on Saturday and again around 11am on the same day.
A friend of Pam Burns, John Costello said Burns was a fun-loving retired commercial pilot. He said the community was distraught.
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