Parents find daughter’s decomposing body

A PARENT’S worst nightmare came true for a Piketberg mother when she discovered her daughter’s decomposing body under a bed.

Sharon van Rooyen, 26, was found dead in the small farming town on Friday. Police have opened an investigation but no one has been arrested.

Van Rooyen’s mother thought she was with her boyfriend after she did not return home about two weeks ago.

But the smell of rotting flesh led them to make the gruesome discovery at the weekend.

The family were too distraught to talk to the media yesterday.

Ward councillor Billy Claasen visited the family and said he would contact the Department of Social Development to provide counselling.

Claasen said the family did not know where Van Rooyen’s boyfriend was.

“They suspect she was murdered,” he said, adding that the family is hurting.

“They would like to say thank you to the residents who have shown them lots of support during this time,” Claasen said.

When the news broke on Friday night, residents were “spilling out of the house” there were so many, Claasen said.

They were a tight-knit community and if something like this happened, they stood by each other, he said.

Van Rooyen was unemployed and her mother works as a seasonal farmworker on a fruit farm in the area. She was one of three children.

Police spokesperson Andre Traut said: “The circumstances surrounding the death of a 26-year-old woman are being investigated after her body was found inside a residence on a farm in Piketberg.

“The cause of death is yet to be determined, and a death inquest case docket has been registered.”

Meanwhile, two suspects recently appeared in court for the murder of a 51-year-old woman who was found in a store room in her Goodwood, Cape Town, house.

Family members had reported her missing and according to the person who alerted police, she was last seen on May 28.

Her car and a hard drive from the CCTV had gone missing from the scene.

Police later found the car and arrested the suspects.