Three Charged With Killing Elderly Couple, Throwing Bodies to Crocodiles in South Africa

The court in Durban, UK heard how Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio messaged his alleged accomplices Bibi Fatima Patel and Mussa Ahmad Jackson to tell them he had chosen the elderly couple as a "target" for a "hunt" in the Ngoye forest.

Three South Africans have been charged with the murder of an elderly couple whose bodies were found half-eaten by crocodiles.

British-born botanist Rod Saunders and his South African wife Rachel, residents of Cape Town, went missing in the Ngoye Forest Reserve, 90 miles north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province, on February 10, 2018.

Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35, who was their lodger at the time, denied kidnapping, murder, robbery and theft at Durban High Court.

Days earlier they had met a BBC film crew led by Gardener's World presenter Nick Bailey in the Drakensberg mountains on the western border of the province, where they were interviewed about their annual search for rare gladioli flower seeds to sell from their home in Cape Town.

Their Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4, camping equipment, mobile phones and bank cards were among the items stolen. The truck was found on February 19 with large amounts of blood in the luggage compartment.

"Around February 10 the investigating officer received information that Rodney Saunders and his wife Dr Rachel Saunders from Cape Town had been kidnapped in the Kwa-Zulu Natal region," the court heard.

"It was established on February 13 that the defendants were drawing money from various ATM's which amounted to theft of R734,000 [£37,000] and there was the robbery of their Land Cruiser and of camping equipment."

Mrs Saunders' partly-eaten body was discovered by fishermen in the River Tugela on February 14, and her husband's on February 17. Both were unrecognizable.

It was only months later, when police ordered DNA tests on all unclaimed bodies, that Mr and Mrs Saunders were identified. Authorities believe they were clubbed to death and dumped in the river.

Del Vecchio and Patel were both arrested on February 15 2018 at their home in Endlovini, 30 miles from the forest, after the Hawks organised crime unit linked their mobile phones to those of the murdered couple.

Jackson was arrested on March 23 and gave a statement to police "to the effect he was woken by Patel at their home on February 10 and told to meet Del Vecchio on the road," the court heard

"Del Vecchio in the Land Cruiser and Patel and Jackson followed to the Tugela River Bridge where they helped him remove sleeping bags from the back of the Toyota and they threw them with human bodies inside into the river," the prosecution said.

A February 10 mobile phone message from Del Vecchio to Patel and Jackson said an elderly couple were in the forest, telling them they were good for a "hunt" and that he had acquired the "target".

A later message sent to an unknown person's number said: "when the brothers in kinya go out and do this work it is very important the body of the victims is never found," adding that "it remains a missing person case."

Rachel Saunders, a microbiologist at a university in Cape Town, held dual South African and UK citizenship after the couple wed. They met while Rod was working at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. They set up their Silverhill Seeds company trading in rare gladioli seeds in 1995.