SHARPEVILLE – A teacher’s decomposing body was found floating in Dlomo Dam in the early hours of Saturday.
The family of Stella Skosana (34), a beloved English teacher at Thuto-Lore Comprehensive School who went missing last week, are desperate for answers about her death.
Skosana’s aunt, Nthabiseng Lekala (59), shared the heartbreaking details of Stella’s disappearance and the subsequent gruesome discovery with Sedibeng Ster.
Lekala alleges that her niece’s boyfriend, who she had been living with for the past two years, said she disappeared after they had a minor domestic dispute on Wednesday.
The mother of three was not at work last week, says her aunt, who alleges that Skosana’s boyfriend only went to the school to ask about her whereabouts on Thursday, and only reported her missing at the Sharpeville Police Station on Friday.
While the police were searching for Skosana, a floating, decomposed body was found by fishermen at Dlomo Dam. The discovery was reported to the police and Skosana’s family was asked to identify the body, says Lekala.
Lekala says Skosana would not have left without telling her family where she was going.
“When her boyfriend came asking me about her disappearance, I told him I knew nothing, despite him claiming that she came to me following their fallout,” she says.
Lekala says that Skosana’s boyfriend said he had last seen her on Wednesday evening. However, she says Skosana’s colleagues informed her that she had not been at work since Monday.
When she visited Powerville, where Skosana lived, Lekala says she found the house empty, with an outside light on.
“I questioned some of her closest neighbours, who told me that Stella had sent texts to borrow a wheelie bin. The texts seemed to suggest she wanted to dump something and couldn’t use hers because it had no wheels. The neighbours told me the messages raised alarm because of how she addressed them. I knew something bad had happened to her,” she shares.
Following her visit to Skosana’s house, police phoned the family to identify a body at the dam.
Lekala says that despite the body being badly decomposed, they identified Skosana through specific marks she had on her body.
“Her phone remains online and someone continues to send people texts, pretending to be Stella,” she says. Sebideng Ster was shown Skosana’s ‘last seen’ status, which showed someone had been using her phone.
“We are devastated and want answers,” says the visibly devastated aunt.
Sedibeng cluster police spokesperson Captain Teboho Lephoto says an investigation is underway. He says after the missing person file was opened, police searched for Skosana until the call was received about the fisherman’s discovery of a body.
“Police rushed to the scene with their expert units and the badly decomposed body was retrieved from the dam,” says Lephoto.
“We appeal to the lover who came and reported her missing, to make contact with the police again since police efforts to find him have failed,” says Lephoto.
