Suspected Killers Of Student Found Raped, Stabbed, Strangled To Death Nabbed
A 21-year-old student in South Africa was raped, stabbed and strangled to death after being abducted in a violent carjacking, police have said. Hannah Cornelius was killed in Stellenbosch, South Africa, after she and her male friend, Cheslin Marsh, who survived the attack, were carjacked by four men on Friday night.
According to newsmen, the police chased down two of the suspects who are believed to have taken part in the incident the following day. The men are now facing a series of charges, including rape and murder.
Cornelius and Marsh were chatting in a blue Volkswagen Citi Golf, which had been given to Cornelius by her 91-year-old grandmother when they were approached by four men.
Marsh was thrown into the boot of the vehicle while Cornelius was forced into the back seat, police said. Cornelius was forced into the back seat of her car during the incident, police said. The pair’s belongings were stolen before the university students were taken to an undisclosed location and beaten with bricks. Marsh told police that he only survived by throwing himself over a wall to escape his captors.
A witness who found Marsh told News24 that he was ‘barefoot and covered in blood, completely disorientated and didn’t know where he was’. Marsh suffered head injuries and a broken arm in the attack and is recovering in the hospital.
Meanwhile, Cornelius’s body was found at 8.30am on Saturday on a road about 10km (six miles) outside Stellenbosch. Police say she had been stabbed several times before being strangled. Her captors are also accused of raping her. Two suspects were arrested on Saturday following a high-speed chase in the hijacked Golf.
The men were seen on CCTV leaping over a ditch to evade authorities before eventually being caught. Two more male suspects were later arrested. The two men seen on CCTV have been identified as Vernon Witbooi, 32, and Geraldo Parsons, 26.
All four men face charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, motor vehicle theft, rape and abduction, and more charges could later be added, officials told New24.
Witbooi and Parsons appeared in court on Monday, while the third man is expected to appear in court on Tuesday and the fourth on Wednesday.
“I know that last night [we] arrested a 26 year-old-man from Cloetesville‚ which is now the fourth arrest that has been made. He will appear in court tomorrow‚” Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk told Times Live.
Cornelius and Marsh were students at the nearby University of Stellenbosch, according to local media reports.
Rector Professor Wim de Villiers told The South African that the university community was left shocked after the incident.
He said: ‘Our campus community is shocked by this senseless death and our hearts go out to the family and friends of the student who lost her life, as well as the student who was injured.’
