A young police detective with only two years’ service at Van Reenen Detective Services recently solved a hit and run case in which a pedestrian was killed.
On Sunday, June 2, at about 8.30pm, the body of 50-year-old Vusi Collen Buthelezi was found alongside the N3 highway at Van Reenen.
A short distance away from the body were pieces of debris from the vehicle that had struck him. The debris contained a mirror cover with a BMW insignia on it.
With not much evidence to go on, investigating officer Constable Thabo Lecheko went about his investigation with dogged determination to track down the culprit. He worked out the distance from the tollgate to the crime scene and then viewed video footage from the Tugela Plaza Tollgate until he identified four vehicles which could possibly have been the suspect’s vehicle. He then moved on to the Wilge Plaza Tollgate and again worked out the distance and time it would have taken the vehicle to reach the next tollgate. He viewed the video footage and soon spotted one of the vehicles with damage to the windscreen and side mirror.
The driver of the vehicle was subsequently traced and arrested in Kew, Johannesburg. The 43-year-old accused is set to appear in the Ladysmith Magistrate’s Court on Monday, November 11.
