Police close case after Moot woman missing since 2016
"However, the case will be reopened should new information or evidence come to light."
Wonderboompoort police confirmed that the case of a Moot woman who went missing in 2016, has been closed.
Madelein Murray and her son Hanco were allegedly driving together on the evening of 10 November 2016, when they tried to cross the low-water bridge in Flowers Street in Capital Park.
However, their vehicle was swept away by the flood.
Hanco was found about a kilometre from the bridge.
Wonderboompoort police spokesperson Constable Mandlakayise Zwane said they were not currently investigating the case.
“However, the case will be reopened should new information or evidence come to light.
“We’re still urging anyone who may have knowledge and information regarding this case to come forward,” he said.
Murray’s mother, Francis Venter was left devastated by the news.
“To this day, my daughter has never been found. How can the police all of a sudden close the case?
“I find it very unfair and I still suspect foul play,” she said.
Rekord previously reported that Murray and her son were seen together at a local pub in the Moot earlier that evening.
After their disappearance, police, firefighters, the local CPF as well as members of the local community were called to the scene and searched for her as far as Bon Accord dam, but the search was unsuccessful.
“I do not believe I will ever be able to make peace with her disappearance. I’m just looking for the truth, but I still believe that the truth surrounding her whereabouts will eventually come to light,” Venter said.
She hired a private detective to help assist with the investigation.
Murray’s phone was tracked down in the Eastern Cape in 2019.
“It does not make sense. How can her phone be traced? If my child had been in the car during the flood, her phone would have been with her,” said Venter.
According to Venter, an altercation broke out between her daughter and Hanco in the parking lot of the pub.
“When she left the pub that night, I asked her to let me know immediately if she was safe at home. I never got the call.
“Something went wrong somewhere that night,” she said.
Murray’s son Hanco has yet again declined to speak to Rekord regarding the course of circumstances.
“I have no interest to speak to the media,” he said.
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