Three suspects two men aged 36 and 49 and a 59-year-old woman have been arrested on murder charges following the discovery of a teenage girl’s body stuffed inside a box in Hout Bay.
The suspects are expected to appear in the Wynberg Magistrates Court on Friday.
The arrests come after the disappearance of Grade 11 pupil Amina Swano, who vanished on Valentine’s Day. She was reported missing at the South African Police Service station in Hout Bay on Tuesday morning after failing to return home.
Around the same time, police discovered a badly decomposed body concealed in a box, complicating efforts to make an immediate identification.
Her mother, Salama Swano, said she feared the worst as soon as she heard that a body had been found.
“The moment they said they found a corpse, I immediately started crying because she is the only person missing at the moment. The only thing I could think of was that it could be her,” she said.
Due to the advanced state of decomposition, authorities collected a DNA sample from the family to confirm the victim’s identity.
Swano said her daughter had attended a second party nearby on the night she disappeared and has raised concerns that she may have been drugged with a date-rape substance.
Police investigations are ongoing as the community grapples with the tragedy and awaits forensic confirmation.