As frightening new details of Karabo Mokoena's death emerge, with the lead investigator on the case believing her murder was a ritual killing, video footage has surfaced showing her killer, Sandile Mantsoe, dragging a bin outside his flat with her body supposedly inside it. TimesLive published the previously unseen footage on Wednesday evening.
Mantsoe was found guilty on May 2 of stabbing Mokoena and trying to cover up the murder by burning her remains, News24 reported. Her body was reportedly found by a passer-by in Lyndhurst, Johannesburg in April last year.
Mantsoe told the court that Mokoena, who had been involved with since October 2016, was troubled, and that he had tried to help her. He said she had committed suicide and that he had disposed of her body as he was afraid of being blamed for her death.
But it emerged that Mantsoe, a father of three, had abused Mokoena and he was sentenced to 32 years for her murder last week.
The lead investigator in the case, Captain Malefetsane Phillip Radebe, told TimesLive that he believed her murder was part of a ritual killing, as 60% of her internal organs were missing, including her heart.
He reportedly said this was usually the case where a cult or ritual-killings were involved.
He reportedly told TimesLive that the ritual killing was told to him by "two to three" witnesses, who believed that Mokoena's murder "had something to do with a cult".
In the video, posted by TimesLive on Wednesday evening, Mantsoe is seen fetching a wheelie bin near his flat just before 10pm. Less than 10 minutes later, he is seen pulling the bin, now full, into a lift. Mokoena was reportedly last seen at 2.48am that day.
According to TimesLive, this footage was taken moments before he took the body into the veld in Lyndhurst to burn it. Mantsoe is seen returning the bin before leaving his block of flats in his Mercedes-Benz with Mokoena's body inside.
Early the next morning, he is seen returning, wearing blue rubber gloves and carrying a green plastic bag into the room where the bin is stored.
Meanwhile, Mantsoe's lawyers say he will appeal his sentence, according to Eyewitness News (EWN). His lawyer, Victor Simelane, reportedly said the sentence handed down was too harsh.
"You would expect sentences of this nature for people who go out there with firearms, robbing banks not a matter which flowed from a love affair," he reportedly said.