Jayde suspect already on run from law

One of the men suspected of murdering much-loved Riebeek College teacher Jayde Panayiotou has been on the run for two months following the hijacking of a pregnant woman from the underground parking lot at the Greenacres Shopping Centre in Port Elizabeth.

To make matters worse, it turns out he was out on bail for a hijacking case in KwaNobuhle when the Greenacres incident occurred.

This information came to light yesterday after the pretty brunette’s body was found in Rocklands just outside Uitenhage at about 10am.

Panayiotou had been shot once in the head and twice in the chest.

Several places in Kwazakhele were raided by police yesterday as the hunt for the culprits intensified.

Panayiotou’s husband Chris said he and his family were struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.

“Both the Panayiotou and Inggs families will spend the evening in Uitenhage together to pray and support one another,” he said.

Panayiotou’s distraught sister, Toni Inggs, did not want to comment.

“What is there left to say?” she asked at the family’s Kweper Street, Uitenhage, residence.

Panayiotou, 28, was abducted by two men at about 6.30am on Tuesday while waiting for friend and colleague Cherise Swanepoel to pick her up for work at her Kabega Park home.

Swanepoel, who had stopped at a petrol station to fill up with fuel on her way to collect her friend in Deacon Road, sent her a WhatsApp as she was leaving the petrol station to say she would be there in a few minutes.

Panayiotou read the message, but when Swanepoel arrived at the townhouse complex just nine minutes later, there was no sign of her.

Following the abduction police sprang into action, launching a manhunt consisting of more than 200 police officers, including members from the Kabega Park police station, the Mount Road office cluster and other detectives from around the Bay, with a R150000 reward for her safe return offered by her family.

Panayiotou’s body, spotted during an aerial search, had been dumped on a farm about 2km along Wincanton Road.

Police linked the Greenacres abduction suspect to Panayiotou’s murder after CCTV footage showed that the same man hijacked a three-month pregnant woman in the shopping centre parking area on February 28.

The woman, who is not being named for her own safety, was held at gunpoint and only released after the suspect had withdrawn R2000 from an ATM at the Sasol Garage in Stanford Road.

Last night, it also came to light that the suspect had been released on bail in January after his arrest in connection with a hijacking incident in KwaNobuhle.

Panayiotou was a Grade 5 teacher at Riebeek College. — wilsong@timesmedia.co.za