Search for missing mom leads to morgue

A mother of three who went missing earlier this month has been found dead in a hospital morgue.

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Cape Town - A mother of three who went missing earlier this month has been found dead in a hospital morgue.

The family of Nomanesi Klawushe, 38, say they were called to come and identify a body that was found in a bush along Symphony Way in Delft on August 16.

Nomanesi's mother, Mandisa Klawushe, 57, identified her badly burnt body by the nail polish on her toes.

On Monday, shocked relatives received an official DNA report confirming it was Nomanesi.

The family says Nomanesi had been raped before she was killed. It's believed her rapist and killer, who is still at large, was known to her.

Nomanesi, who has three children aged, 20, 14 and 12, went missing on August 7 after leaving her Leiden home with a neighbour.

Her cousin, Portia Ngotya, 51, says they reported her missing to police the next day.

On Friday, August 12, police discovered her body in Symphony Way.

"She left this house with the neighbour who is a male friend of hers," Portia explains. "On August 12, the police called to say they found an unidentified person at Tygerberg Hospital whose body was found in Delft bushes.

"Her whole body was burnt, it was only her toes you could see the nail polish. The mother identified her by the nail polish because it was brown in colour on her toes."

The family is now desperate to find her killer.

Portia added: "The mother went with the police to the neighbour's house, but he says he knows nothing. But we think this can't be it, someone must know something. She was brutally murdered and we think she was raped also."

Mandisa said her daughter was a quiet soul who didn't deserve such a death.

"She wasn't working but looked after her children," she says. "She was a very quiet child and this is terrible what they did to her."

Police spokesman Captain FC Van Wyk said: "Children playing in the bush made the discovery on August 16. We have opened a case of rape and murder after the person was set alight.

Daily Voice