Johannesburg - A passer-by made a gruesome discovery of a mutilated and partially burnt body in an Ekurhuleni river at the weekend.
Police spokesman Captain Mega Ndobe said on Monday that police had been unable to even establish the gender of the body as the head as well as the lower part had been cut off.
He added that the corpse, which was found on Sunday in a river in Katlehong, was also partially burnt.
“At this stage we don’t know whether it’s a male or female, and we are appealing to the community to come forward with any information that could help with identifying the person.”
Ndobe said police would also conduct a DNA test in a bid to identify the body. He was not able to say when exactly the person was murdered, but added that that the body was “reasonably fresh”.
Police believe that the victim was killed elsewhere and then dumped in the river. No arrests had been made and a murder docket has been opened.
Ndobe appealed to local residents to report any information that could lead to the identity of the person or persons involved in the heinous crime to contact their local police station.
In January, a woman’s naked body was pulled out of Boksburg Lake. She was between 50 and 60 and had a tattoo of two leaves on her right shoulder. Post-mortem results showed that the woman may have been strangled and then hit on the head with a hard object.