A man accused of killing his girlfriend and then hiding her remains in a freezer, stared coldly at the prosecutor as he explained to the court how the grim discovery was made.
Brian Miripiri was arrested on Saturday after the police and family members of Busisiwe Mthethwa, 56, found her chopped up body in a chest freezer in her Samora Machel home.
Afterwards, Miripiri allegedly went home with another woman and spent the night with her.
The family say they last heard from Busisiwe on Thursday.
Miripiri apparently told her relatives that she had gone to the Eastern Cape.
Her relatives became suspicious when they were informed by a neighbour that he was selling her possessions.
One who asked not to be named at this stage, explains: “When we arrived there, the shack was locked, people said they hadn’t seen her the entire day on Friday but he said she travelled around 7pm.
“Brian was at a local shebeen when we arrived. I called our relatives in the Eastern Cape and she wasn’t there.”
The relative says they then went to the police station and asked for an escort.
“When we got there [to Brian’s house], we saw him in the road and the police told him to open the door.
“In the kitchen, we found a knife and the kitchen was ransacked. I heard my sister screaming that there was blood on the curtains.
“We asked him where Busisiwe was and he said she was in Blackheath; we knew it was a lie because she would never go anywhere without telling us.
“My brother noticed that there were things piled inside the freezer, when he removed the most heavy item, he saw Busisiwe inside.”
Miripiri, a Zimbabwean national, has opted for a Legal aid lawyer.
The State prosecutor said:
“The police who attended the scene said it was like a fight had occurred. He told the police he hadn’t seen her for two days. They found the victim’s body in the chest freezer. He was then arrested. The State doesn’t have bail information.”
The case was postponed for bail information.
Samora Machel Community Policing Forum chairperson Jacky Samuels says they will be drawing up a petition to keep Brian behind bars.
“Her family had been looking for her and he lied while her body was in a freezer chopped into pieces.
“How long must women suffer at the hands of men? We have seen so many incidents where women were killed by their partners, and like in this case, they were foreigners.”
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk says cops attended a missing person’s complaint at a premises in Jeff Masemola Street.
“He initially denied any knowledge of the victim’s whereabouts. The boyfriend then asserted that the 56-year-old [victim] was in Blackheath. However, she reportedly did not want her next of kin to know of her whereabouts.
“The household was in disarray and the officer then searched the house and found the victim’s body in a freezer.”