Several grizzly discoveries have challenged Western Cape police this week.
|||Cape Town - The bones found at Lentegeur Psychiatric hospital this week, at first believed to be those of a small child, have been identified as “non-human”.
Provincial health department spokeswoman Faiza Steyn said test results on the bones indicated they did not belong to a child as was previously believed.
On Wednesday police were called to Lentegeur Psychiatric Hospital after construction workers unearthed the bag of bones wrapped in a blanket.
This was just one of several grizzly discoveries that challenged police this week.
On Monday, they were called to a Kraaifontein scene where 16-year-old Charmaine Mare’s burnt and dismembered body was discovered by a passer-by.
The following day, the badly-decomposed body of a little girl was found in a shack in Green Point, Khayelitsha.
The owner of the shack had gone on a trip and left a man looking after her shack. But she found the locks changed on her return.
While official tests have not been done, the family of five-year-old Lilitha Mgwebi, who went missing on Christmas Day, has identified the girl as wearing similar clothing.
Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said they were looking for the man, but were struggling without a detailed description.
Meanwhile, police are still seeking information that may lead to the arrest of the killers of two young women, Nokulunga Condwa and Zimasa Mandzingana, whose bodies were found on a farm near Worcester this month. The two were found half dressed, propped up against a fence.
Van Wyk said although the two had been identified this week, the investigation was still under way into what happened after they left a shebeen earlier in the evening.
“Anyone with information is kindly requested to contact the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Gideon Geldenhuys, on 079 497 4992.”
According to crime statistics released last year, 793 children and 2 286 women were murdered in SA in 2011/12.
Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Johan Burger said they had not done recent research to show whether women and children were the targets for more violent crimes.
SA Medical Research Council research, released in November, showed that there was a distinct gender pattern in child murders, with murders of younger children being higher among girls. For adolescent murders, however, the number of boys increased.
Weekend Argus