Police have denied a mother’s claim that her 12-year-old son was found hanging with his hands tied up.
Louise Davids, 43, believes her son Nathaniel “Tenni” Davids, 12, was murdered after the boy was found hanging from a concrete fence pole near the Netreg train station on Friday.
The mother said Nathaniel’s hands and feet were tied with a lanyard, and he was strung up by his neck.
She said her son did not go to school on Friday, and she sent him to a shop just before 2pm to buy biscuits. Nearly an hour later, a man came to tell them that Nathaniel had been found dead by two cops patrolling the area.
Police said no foul play is suspected and have opened an inquest docket for investigation.
But the Bonteheuwel mom believes her son was murdered and did not commit suicide.
Louise denied that her son had belonged to a gang.
Yesterday, police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut indicated that cops would continue to investigate the case after allegations that the child had been killed by gangsters.
“Police would like to dispel the speculations surrounding the unfortunate death of Nathaniel Davids,” said Traut.
“We deem it in the interest of the community to place it on record that his hands were not tied when his body was discovered.
“An interim post-mortem ruled out foul play at this stage. However, we will continue to investigate all aspects surrounding Nathaniel’s death, as well as the aspects leading up to the incident.
“A death inquest case docket has been registered for this purpose.
“The death of a person, and in particular a child, is a traumatic experience for the family and friends of the deceased and we would like to encourage the community to avoid spreading unfounded information which often aggravates the situation unnecessarily.”