Body parts in fridge: Flavio Hlabangwane found guilty of premeditated murder

Flavio Hlabangwane, the man accused of killing his girlfriend and storing her body parts in a fridge, has been found guilty of premeditated murder, violating a corpse and defeating the ends of justice.

The Johannesburg High Court, sitting in Palm Ridge, delivered its ruling on Tuesday.

Hlabangwane was seen crying in court on Tuesday while Judge Cassim Ismail Moosa delivered his verdict.

Watch: Murder accused Flavio Hlabangwane cries in court

Hlabangwane is expected to bring his own evidence and witnesses before a sentence is handed down.

The trial will resume on 10 February.

ALSO READ: Body parts in fridge: ‘I couldn’t forgive her for cheating on me,’ Soweto man tells court

Body parts found in fridge

Hlabangwane was arrested in November 2021, after Pitse’s body parts were found in his fridge in Soweto.

Last week, he told the court how he killed Pitse after discovering she had cheated on him.

“I was very angry and bitter towards her,” his admission to the court read.

Hlabangwane, who was referred for psychiatric evaluation at Sterkfontein Hospital, also admitted that he searched on the internet for ways to kill Pitse and “the quickest ways to dispose of the corpse”.

Pitse killed after argument

He admitted that he killed Pitse after the couple had argued over a bank card.

“On 6 October, the deceased and I met at the house, we sat and spoke. I then left, taking her bank card to go to buy food without asking her first. When I came back, the deceased confronted me about this and this started an argument between us which at the time created an opportunity for me to kill her as planned.”

After dismembering Pitse’s body, Hlabangwane stored the body parts in his freezer.

He said he struggled to sleep alone in the house during this time.

“After I had killed and dismembered the deceased in the house, I could not sleep in the house alone, that is the reason why I started bringing women into the house. One of the women that I had brought to the house found the deceased’s dismembered arms and legs in the freezer and alerted the community.”