Elsies man killed, dumped near shopping mall
Cape Town 23-4-2023 Ryan Johnson murdered in Elsies River and his body was dumped behind Shoprite pic Marsha
Elsies River police are investigating a murder after the body of a 25-year-old man was found dumped near a shopping mall.
Cops said the man was identified as Ryan Johnson from Eureka Estate and he was found near the Dee Bee Centre situated in Owen Road and Adriaanse Street on Saturday.
His hartseer mom Helen Johnson said she last saw her son on Saturday morning at around 2am.
“He works at the cable car in town, he came home at 8.45pm on Friday evening and he said he didn’t make much but gave me a R150 and he had a bottel sterk wyn that he got from a customer because he always gets gelukkies at work,” she explains.
“He put the bottle away and said he and his brother will drink it when he comes back from work on Saturday.
“He sat outside with a few friends and his skoonsister listening to music. At 12 midnight, they all went home but Ryan didn’t come back and I laid awake waiting for him.
“At 2.05am, he knocked and I opened the door, he said he got a buyer for the bottle and I told him he needs to go to sleep because he has to go to work at 6am and he said ‘yes, mammie, I am going’.
“He went to fetch the bottle and said ‘bye mammie, sien weer vir mammie’ and at 6am the inspectors came to knock me awake to come and identify my son’s body.”
The heartbroken mom says contrary to rumours going around, she did not see anyone accompanying her son or see a car at her front gate when he came to knock at 2am.
Ryan was described as loving, caring and friendly by those who knew him and his mother says her son was not a skollie.
“His jacket was lying a distance from him; when the forensics lifted his sweater they said there isn’t a chappie or anything on his body because he wasn’t a gangster.
“We are unsure of how many stab wounds he had but he was a people’s person, he didn’t leave me any children, just his love. It is not a nice feeling but I believe in God that they will be caught because they had to know him to kill him,” Helen says.
SAPS spokesperson Malcolm Pojie confirms that Elsies River police are investigating a case of murder.
“Members were dispatched to the scene at about 9.45am and on arrival found the body of the deceased who had already succumbed to a suspected stab wound as he was bleeding profusely. Circumstances around his death as well as the motive form part of the investigation.”