The body of a 66-year-old woman who was raped and murdered was found on Sunday, a mere stone’s throw away from her home in Hazyview, Mpumalanga.

According to an article published by Lowvelder, the victim’s daughter, Adella Bekker, identified her as Phyllis Wilhelmina van Bosch.

Bekker says her mother, who lived at MPM Lodge in Hazyview, went missing on Friday after visiting a friend at a neighbouring lodge from 10:00 to 12:30. Van Bosch was reportedly fine when she left the friend’s house to return home.

What was meant to be a short walk through the veld between adjacent lodges turned deadly and Van Bosch never made it home.

Later the same day, when another neighbour arrived to drop off medication, Van Bosch was still not home, although the house was unlocked. When she returned the following day for a welfare check, the medication was still on the table where she had left it, the house was still unlocked, and there was no sign of Van Bosch.

Worried about her, her friends posted a missing person’s alert on local community WhatsApp groups asking for assistance to find her. Several community members jumped into action in a fruitless effort to locate her.

When they tried calling her cellphone, it rang unanswered. Consequently, a missing person’s case was opened at the Hazyview Police Station on Saturday.

Bekker, who joined the search, decided to revisit her mother’s house on Sunday morning, which is when she made the gruesome discovery.

“I noticed something that looked like a person next to the road towards her house. I asked my boyfriend to go and look. He found my mother’s lifeless and naked body. She had a head wound and her underwear was wrapped around her left leg,” a distraught Bekker says.

She covered the body and called the police and paramedics. Her mother was declared dead on the scene.

Preliminary investigations indicate Van Bosch was raped before she was killed.

The spokesperson for the Hazyview Police Station, Sergeant Zanele Ndlovu, confirmed they are investigating rape and murder cases, and no arrests have been made yet.

“The entire family, and those in Hazyview who knew her, are still devastated by her death because she was loved by everyone. The fact that at her age she was raped and killed is very traumatic for us. We are now calling for justice for her because she was harmless.”

Bekker says her mother will be missed for her smile, humanity and always wanting to see people happy. “She wanted to believe it was a united and safe community to live in; as she said, we were all South Africans.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or send information via the My SAPS app.

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