Police open murder case against Thabo Bester
The case was opened after the body of the man previously thought to be Bester was found to have died from blunt force trauma before his body was burnt in the Facebook Rapist's prison cell in May 2022.
JOHANNESBURG - Police said a case of murder was opened after it emerged that the man dubbed the ‘Facebook Rapist,’ Thabo Bester, could have killed someone during his plot to escape prison.
Over the weekend, the Department of Correctional Services confirmed that Bester escaped from the Mangaung Prison in May 2022.
He was serving a life sentence for murder and rape at the maximum-security prison operated by multinational private security company G4S.
The department said that Bester died after his prison cell caught fire.
However, it said that recent information revealed that the body found in the gutted cell was not that of Bester and it did not match the DNA of a woman believed to be his mother.
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His escape sparked serious concerns about details surrounding it, especially how he managed to evade the prison and go unnoticed for such a long period.
“A case of murder is under investigation following the outcome of the DNA analysis that confirmed that the body of the deceased, which was found was not of Thabo Bester,” said national police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe.
“The autopsy report went on to further reveal that the deceased had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, and was already dead, before the arson incident.”
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said the possibility that Bester could have committed murder during his prison escape should not be taken lightly.
Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said that while a case of murder should be opened, the Correctional Services Department needed to investigate the management of the Mangaung Prison for the many loopholes in Bester's escape story.
“This further raises questions as to whom the burnt body belongs, and how it found itself in cell 35.”
The union said that the negligence at the prison was a result of the department allowing private and foreign companies to run the centre, as it is contracted to G4S.