Three people have been jailed for their murders as well as stealing from their vehicle and a credit card, which was used to make purchases totalling over £32,000
A British couple were reportedly abducted, murdered and their bodies dumped into a crocodile-infested river in South Africa. A total of three people were imprisoned for the murders, as well as theft from their vehicle and fraudulent use of a credit card, racking up purchases exceeding £32,000.
Rodney and Rachel Saunders, 74 and 63 respectively, were on a quest for rare seeds in KwaZulu-Natal’s Ngoye Forest when they were kidnapped back in 2018. The couple, who held dual South African and British citizenship, were discovered in a river days later, prompting a police investigation.
Detectives revealed that the pair were setting up camp next to a forest dam when the attackers, linked to ISIS, tortured them for their bank details. The Brits were then brutally attacked, stabbed and bludgeoned to death before being wrapped in their sleeping bags and discarded in a crocodile-filled river.
As reported by the Daily Mail, Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 46, his wife Fatima Patel, 36, and Malawian national Musa Jackson, 43, were found guilty of the murders last month. A Durban court handed down two life sentences with concurrent jail time for kidnapping, robbery and theft.
The court was informed that Del Vecchio and Patel had ties to ISIS at the time of the crime. During a search of their residence, investigating officers uncovered Islamic State literature and a flag.
They were part of a local gang, led by Muslim convert Del Vecchio, who had marked the couple as a “good hunt”. The gang ambushed the Brits, forcing them to disclose their bank details before murdering them.
The criminals then made their getaway in the Saunders’s Toyota Land Cruiser, with Rachel and Rod in the back. The couple were later discarded into the river where their bodies were mauled by crocodiles before washing ashore.
Detectives located their remains after tracing a pattern of credit card expenditure that led them to the gang. They discovered substantial blood stains linked to Rachel and Rod inside the 4 x 4.
Autopsies revealed that Rachel had been struck multiple times on the back of her skull with a machete-like heavy blade and stabbed repeatedly in the upper back.
She had also been bludgeoned with a hefty blunt object believed to be the same murder weapon used to crush her husband, Rod’s skull.
When recovered, their bodies were unidentifiable due to the crocodile attacks and decomposition. It required two pathologists using DNA and a dental expert to finally confirm their identities.
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