Free State police spokesperson, Malebo Khosana says Thapelo Makhanye’s family reported him missing on Thursday, 30 September, after a cattle herder came to their house to report that he found Makhanye’s Bible next to the river with his clothing also lying there. The herder said that the deceased’s personal information: name and home address were written out in the front of the Bible. A police search ensued and divers found and retrieved the 26-year-old’s body on Friday afternoon. 

Despite reporting Makhanye missing on Thursday the family in fact last saw him alive on Monday 27 September 2021. They assumed that he was out and about in  Qalabotjha township in Villiers and were not worried until the herder pitched up at their front door with word of the bible and clothes lying on the river bank. Following the retrieval of the body by police divers, the family positively identified the deceased’s clothes. An autopsy is now being performed to ascertain the cause of death.

OFM News