Mystery surrounds the death of an 86-year-old Fairlands Home resident who was found murdered in his lounge over a week ago.
Keith Ferreira, who taught fitting and turning at Port Rex High School for 30 years, was strangled to death.
The widower’s death was originally put down to natural causes, but a funeral parlour undertaker raised the alarm that foul play may have played a role.
Following a police postmortem, police confirmed on Friday that he had been strangled.
Ferreira’s family have vowed to leave no stone unturned to find his killer who appears to have choked the elderly man with either a rope or a belt.
A small pool of blood was found near his body.
According to the executive director of the East London Senior Citizen’s Association Colleen Petzer, Ferreira was found lying face down in his ground floor mid-care flat on the afternoon of Thursday October 30.
“One of our residents said she hadn’t seen him, so the assistant matron and the matron’s secretary went to his room.
“His front door was open and he was lying on the floor. We thought he’d had a heart attack and phoned the police, who said his body could be removed by the funeral parlour.”
Petzer said Stones Funeral Parlour had called the retirement home because the undertaker “didn’t like what he saw”.
“The matron and I went to the funeral parlour and saw very definite marks around his neck. It was thick bruising like a belt or rope had been used.
“This is very, very mysterious to us – in 49 years this has never happened. It is very disturbing. There was no sign of a struggle. We are at a loss for words.”
Petzer said following a few break-ins at the retirement village last year, the facility had been fully enclosed with razor-wire topped walls.
“We also have 24-hour security, but we will have to tighten this because our residents and their families will be nervous. We are used to residents passing away, but not to someone being murdered,” she said.
“In my opinion this was someone known to him, like a staff member or a fellow resident.”
Ferreira’s son Gavin Ferreira also speculated his father was murdered by someone known to him because both his security gate and front door were unlocked.
His father had moved to Fairlands less than a year ago after experiencing security scares at his Amalinda home.
Police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi said an inquest had been opened into the death. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za