UPDATE: Lerato returns home safely
Vryheid police began searching for her on Monday after she was reported missing by her parents.
Lerato Moloi has returned home safely.
Vryheid police began searching for her on Monday after she was reported missing by her parents.
Lerato’s parents expressed deep anguish over the fact that she could not be found, fearing that she may have been hurt, or worse, by the men who they believed kidnapped her last month.
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Police are still investigating the kidnapping, believing the teen had exposed a human trafficking syndicate in Vryheid. Lerato told police that she had been forced into a bakkie and transported to an unknown location with a jersey covering her head, where she was held against her will with five other women. She somehow managed to escape and reported the incident to the police leading to the arrest of two men in connection with the kidnapping.
Lerato went missing again on Monday, just five days after the two men were released by the court due to insufficient evidence.
However, Lerato’s disappearance on Monday was completely unrelated to the kidnapping case. Lerato’s mother told the Vryheid Herald that Lerato had taken her father’s cell-phone when she left home to visit her boyfriend and had lost the cell phone somewhere along the route.
“She was afraid to tell her father that she had lost his phone so she went to a friend’s house instead of coming home. Her friend’s mother insisted that Lerato come back home last night,” said Mrs Moloi.
