MYSTERY surrounds the identity of a charred body discovered in Ottery over the weekend as crimefighters appeal for information.
The shocking discovery of a still-smouldering body in a veldjie along De Wet Road on Friday sent tongues wagging as mense speculate what led up to the person’s death.
A resident who asked not to be named says, while rumours are rife, the community remains clueless about what led up to the discovery.
The local source says: “Nobody knows who the person is or who did this, but on Friday we heard so many stories.
“First, they said it was a woman who was on fire and apparently the people who saw a fire on the veldjie didn’t think anything of it because they thought someone was burning copper.
“It was only afterwards they saw it was a body and everyone kept saying it was a woman.
“Some people say it happened during Jumuah time, but others say it happened in the morning already and was only found after people left mosque.”
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirms the incident, but says the deceased person is still unknown.
He reports: “Grassy Park SAPS registered an inquest for investigation, following the discovery of an unidentified burned body, that was found on an open field in De Wet Road, Ottery Friday afternoon at about 3pm.
“A post-mortem will be conducted to determine the race, gender, age and cause of death.”
Charmaine Arendse of the Grassy Park Community Policing Forum (CPF) says they attended the crime scene but no information was forthcoming.
Arendse adds: ‘We attended the scene but there was no information on who the person was or what led up to this.
“The CPF is calling on anyone with information to come forward to police.”
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crime Stop on 08600 10111.