Cape Town - Mystery surrounds the discovery of a decomposed body buried in a shallow grave along the N7 Highway on Wednesday night.
A source said police and forensic experts combed the scene and excavated the decomposed remains of an unknown person, “just as the sun was setting at about 7pm and just before the Plattekloof Road interchange”.
The source added, “The cops from Milnerton arrived with the forensics team. You could see the lights of the vehicles as people slowed down to see what was going on. They arrived with a man who is apparently a witness of some sort, but it is not clear if he found the body or if he took the cops to the place where the body was buried.
“They called the forensics team but the body was so badly decomposed they could not tell if it was a woman or a man. The details are very vague but it was definitely buried there.”
Police spokesperson, Wesley Twigg, confirmed the incident and said: “Milnerton police registered an inquest for investigation following the discovery of the body of a person in a shallow grave in an open field along the N7 Highway, Montague Gardens, on Wednesday at about 6.45pm.
“The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. A post-mortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death.”
Jacqui Pember of the Milnerton Community Policing Forum (CPF) said they had no further information at this stage. Pember added, “But it is disconcerting that this type of incident doesn’t illicit more shock among the community – we haven’t had any comments on community groups as yet.
“We are becoming so desensitised to murder and crime that these deaths are just glossed over and become part of our average ‘80 murders a day’ stats,” Pember said.
“I can’t speculate who this person was but it could be anyone from a victim of crime to a natural death of one of the street people living in the area.
“We just have to let the police do their jobs and hope no foul play is involved.”
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Crime Stop on 08600 10111.