Missing Paarl woman: Man arrested at PE takeaway
A MAN has been arrested in Port Elizabeth in connection with the disappearance of a young Western Cape woman.
The 32-year-old man was detained at dawn on Saturday at a takeaway outlet after police responded to a suspicious-vehicle alert from a member of the public, police said yesterday.
The woman, Nicole Pienaar, 28, and her car disappeared in Paarl two weeks ago.
Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the man, also from Paarl, had been found sitting at the Five Ways KFC in a Peugeot packed with clothes and other items.
“It seems this was why the alert was called in,” Naidu said.
“One of our officers was on his way to work and drove straight there and, when he checked the licence plate, a Paarl stolen vehicle case came up.”
It had not taken long before the link was made between the missing vehicle and the woman, who went missing from Paarl two weeks ago, Naidu said.
National missing persons police support group The Pink Ladies had posted an alert about Pienaar, who is 1.68m tall with long brown hair.
She was last seen on January 5 when she left her mother’s home, driving her mother’s goldcoloured Peugeot.
Naidu said the man claimed he and Pienaar had been travelling together in the vehicle to Port Elizabeth, but they had an argument and he dropped her off in Oudtshoorn on January 7.
The man is being held on a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle and for further investigation into Pienaar’s disappearance.
He will appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court today on the vehicle charge.
Paarl police would then take him back to the Western Cape for the continuation of the stolen vehicle case and investigation of Pienaar’s disappearance, Paarl police spokeswoman Captain Louise du Plessis said.
She said the man had been in an on-off relationship with Pienaar for a couple of months.
She had been living with her mother and there was no evidence that she had left Paarl with the man in the Peugeot.
Police are appealing to anyone who may have seen Pienaar or have information about her disappearance to contact the nearest police station or Paarl police on 082-693-6066.