The bodies of a British couple were thrown to crocodiles after they were beaten to death by three people allegedly linked to terror group, Isis, a South African court has heard.
World-renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74,
and his wife Rachel, 63, had recently finished recording a TV segment with the
BBC when they were reportedly ambushed in a remote forest.
The three criminals accused of killing them
are said to have put their bodies in sleeping bags and thrown them off a bridge
into a crocodile-infested river, before going on a £37,000 spending spree with
their credit cards.
In the High Court trial in Durban,
KwaZulu-Natal province, Sayfudeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 41, his wife Bibi Fatima
Patel, 30, and their lodger Mussa Ahmed Jackson, 35, were accused of the brutal
robbery and murder.
The Saunders’ bodies were found in the River
Tugela near Eshowe in western South Africa days later, but it was months before
they were identified by DNA tests.
A doctor told the court that examination of
the bodies showed evidence of ‘scavenger activity’ adding: ‘The damage to the
bodies suggest that something could have fed on them.
‘For example a crocodile due to the lost
tissue on the arms, neck and chest. Once the bodies were pushed into the banks
then dogs and rats could have fed on it.’
Post mortems carried out on the bodies
revealed the couple died of blunt force trauma.
Dr Rachel Saunders, a microbiologist, and
Rodney, a horticulturist, had been married for 30 years and spent half of each
year collecting rare Gladioli seeds in remote South African mountains to ship
around the world.
South African-born Rachel got British
citizenship when she married Rod, a former nursery manager at the world-famous Kirstenbosch
Botanical Gardens.
After returning from filming in the
Drakensberg Mountains and leaving the camera crew, the couple headed for the
Ngoye Forest where they were targeted by the three accused, who reportedly had
messages on their phones suggesting the couple would make a ‘good hunt’.
The court heard: ‘Around February 10 the
investigating officer received information that Rodney Saunders and his wife Dr
Rachel Saunders had been kidnapped in the KwaZulu-Natal region.
‘It was established on February 13 that the
defendants were drawing money from ATMs which amounted to theft of R734,000
(£37,000) and there was the robbery of their Toyota Land Cruiser and camping
gear.
‘It is alleged that between February 10 and
15 at the Ngoye Forest the accused did unlawfully and intentionally kill Rachel
Saunders and between the same dates did unlawfully and intentionally kill
Rodney Saunders.’
The court heard: ‘On March 23 the third
accused 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 was in the Land Cruiser and
Patel and Jackson followed to the Tugela River Bridge where they helped him
remove the sleeping bags from the back and threw them with human bodies inside
into the river.’
Married couple Del Vecchio and Patel and
their lodger Jackson, who is Malawian, deny the charges of kidnap, murder,
robbery and theft at Durban High Court.
The trial continues.
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