Police lab delays case of toddler slaying

A POLICE laboratory is holding up the investigation into the alleged rape and murder of three-year-old Jayde Veldman from Parkside.

Police, who have yet to make an arrest but have an idea of who the suspects are, yesterday said they were waiting for the lab to produce the DNA results.

Jayde was laid to rest more than eight months ago, on May 27, in an emotional service at the New Life Centre in Buffalo Park.

East London police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala said suspects in the case were taken in for DNA tests, but the SAPS laboratory had yet to return the results.

She declined to say how long the lab had been sitting with the DNA but confirmed that the Western Capebased laboratory was overloaded with work sent by investigators from all around SA.

She said: “The results will confirm if the suspects are positively linked with the suspected rape and murder of Veldman.”

The tiny body of Jayde Veldman was found dumped metres from her Second Creek home in Parkside, East London on May 20.

Veldman, who is believed to have been raped before her murder, was found floating in a smelly stream.

Jayde was last seen wearing white tights, a pink top and black sandals.

She had been playing with other children outside her home a day before she was found dead.

She is survived by her mother, father and two siblings, aged 20 and nine.

● In an unrelated crime, a vehicle stolen in an armed robbery in Amalinda was recovered by Cambridge police on Monday.

Cambridge police spokesperson, Captain Mluleki Mbi, said three armed men entered the home, ordered the owner to lie down and took his belongings.

He said the robbers took two plasma TVs, a radio, three cellphones and a tablet computer.

No arrests have been made.