Police have confirmed that four of the women whose deaths they are investigating in the Kempton Park area were sexually assaulted.
Deputy National Police Commissioner for Policing Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili said forensic investigations had established sexual assault in four cases.
Investigators could not immediately make the same determination in one case because police found the woman’s body in an advanced state of decomposition.
Police have not established a motive for the killings.
Four women sexually assaulted
Mosikili confirmed the development during a briefing in Kempton Park as specialist teams continued analysing the deaths.
She said police could confirm sexual assault in four of the cases, while forensic work on the decomposed remains remained difficult.
Police are also investigating whether the women suffered other injuries before their deaths.
SAPS has deployed detectives, forensic experts, tracking teams, intelligence officers and K9 units as part of the investigation.
Two women remain unidentified
Police also confirmed that two of the five women under investigation had not yet been identified by Tuesday morning.
Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, 38, was among those formally identified.
Moselakgomo disappeared after leaving her Rhodesfield home for a run. Her family identified her body at the Germiston mortuary on Monday.
Police found her body in Rhodesfield on Saturday.
Are the cases linked?
Investigators have still not established that one person is responsible for the deaths.
Acting Gauteng Police Commissioner Major-General Fred Kekana previously said detectives had found similarities between some of the cases but needed evidence before linking them.
“While there are similarities in some of the circumstances surrounding the cases, it will be premature at this stage to conclude that the four cases are linked,” Kekana said.
Police are comparing timelines, locations, evidence and victim profiles to establish whether connections exist.
Mosikili said on Monday evening that investigators would not confirm links until they had completed the necessary investigative and forensic processes.
One suspect remains in custody in connection with the first woman found dead in July. Police have not linked that suspect to the other cases.
Another woman found dead in Ekurhuleni
In a separate development on Tuesday morning, police found another woman’s body on the side of a road in KwaThema, Springs.
KwaThema lies about 45km from Kempton Park.
Police have not confirmed any link between the KwaThema discovery and the cases under investigation in and around Kempton Park and Olifantsfontein.
I’d keep the headline specifically on the sexual assault confirmation because that is the strongest new, verified development, rather than treating the KwaThema discovery as another linked victim before SAPS says so.
