Johannesburg – The family of the man – whose body was set alight in Thabo Bester’s cell at Mangaung Correctional Centre as part of the Facebook Rapist’s elaborate escape – is distraught.
At the weekend police said the burnt body found in Bester’s cell had been identified through DNA tests as that of Katlego Mpholo.
The dead man’s distraught mother, Monica Matsie, who was asked to do a DNA test last week, broke down in tears while being interviewed on television.
Bester, who has since been rearrested after his escape in May last year and is being held under high security, used Katlego Mpholo’s body to fake his death.
Katlego Mpholo went missing early last year and his family had been – until this weekend – unaware of his fate.
They reported him missing and visited at least five mortuaries as they unsuccessfully searched for him.
Batho Mpholo – the father of the dead man – reportedly spoke to The Citizen at his home at Tembisa in Johannesburg – and revealed the family has been searching for him since April last year.
He rejected suggestions that his 30-year-old son collapsed in the city centre in Bloemfontein before he was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.
Instead, Mpholo believes – convicted rapist and murderer Bester – had his son abducted and killed.
The family has yet to see the charred remains of their son – Katlego Mpholo – who is survived by their four-year-old grandson and two-year-old granddaughter.
“I am broken. My heart is shattered into a million pieces,” the dead man’s father said.
Convicted rapist Bester, who used Facebook to lure his victims, was re-arrested in Tanzania along with his partner Dr. Nandipha Magudumana who is thought to have assisted in using the body as ruse.
RELATED: Arrested Thabo Bester Is ‘Facebook Rapist’ Who Escaped From Prison – The Bulrushes
So far five people have been arrested in connection with the Facebook Rapist’s escape.
