Beaten to death25 and fed to crocs
Couple killed on African nature trip, court hears
They helped him remove sleeping bags with bodies inside & threw them in river STATEMENT TO COURT TELLS OF MURDER ALLEGATIONS
A COUPLE were fed to crocodiles after being killed in a nature reserve, a court heard.
Respected botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were allegedly beaten to death, zipped into their sleeping bags and tossed into crocinfested waters in South Africa.
Their decomposed bodies were later found by fishermen in the Ngoye Forest Reserve in the eastern province of Kwazulu Natal.
Now three people have gone on trial accused of their kidnap and murder.
Shortly after the disappearance in 2018 the defendants used the Britons’ bank cards to withdraw around €45,000, Durban high court heard.
The Saunders’ Toyota Land Cruiser was also allegedly stolen.
Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35, deny all the charges.
Mr and Mr Saunders spent six months each year scouring mountains and forests for rare seeds for their worldwide mail-order business. They travelled from their Cape Town home to Drakensberg Mountains to be interviewed by Nick Bailey for the BBC’S Gardeners’ World on February 5, 2018.
REMOTE
Horticulturist Mr Saunders and his wife, a microbiologist, then went to camp by a dam in a remote forest area.
The court heard: “The third accused Mussa Ahmad Jackson was arrested and he made a statement to the effect he was woken by Patel at their home on February 10 and told to meet Del Vecchio on the road.
“Del Vecchio in the Land Cruiser and
Patel and Jackson followed to the Tugela River Bridge where they helped him remove sleeping bags from the... Toyota and they threw them with human bodies inside into the river.”
The victims’ vehicle was found on February 19 with a large amount of their blood inside, the court heard.
Rachel’s body was recovered from the River Tugela on February 14 and Rod’s on February 17.
The bodies were not initially linked to the missing persons’ inquiry.
It was more than two months later that DNA tests identified the couple.
Experts believe both were beaten to death with a blunt instrument.
Whatsapp messages initially sparked fears the defendants were members of ISIS, according to the indictment.
On February 9, 2018 there was allegedly a discussion of killing the “kuffar” (non-believer) and “putting fear in the heart of the kuffar”. On February 10 a message from Del Vecchio to his wife and their lodger apparently said there was an elderly couple in the forest and that it was a good “hunt”.
A man named Thembamandla Xulu is due to testify at the trial.
He was arrested on Feb 26 and found with the victims’ phones. It was said he led police to the defendants’ home.
NURSERY
He got a three-year suspended sentence after a separate trial.
Mr and Mrs Saunders, married for 30 years, first met when he was a nursery manager at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town. Mrs Saunders, who was born in South Africa, received dual citizenship after marrying Mr Saunders. The trial continues.