Three South African police officers who had been missing since April 23, 2025, were found dead in a river six days later.
Two female constables, Boipelo Senoge (20) and Keamogetswe Buys (30), and the male constable, Cebekhulu Linda (24), were last seen leaving a petrol station near Johannesburg.
Their bodies were discovered by divers in the Hennops River, approximately 70 km (43 miles) away, along with the remains of two other unidentified individuals.
Speaking to the media along the N1 in Pretoria on Tuesday, National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola confirmed that the bodies of the three missing constables had been found. He said:
It is with deep sorrow that I confirm that our three members have been found, together with two other bodies, one being an admin clerk that is attached to our Lyttleton police station.
The Commissioner said police had “searched everywhere for our three missing police officers,” and that the high-level team tasked with investigating their disappearance had “spent sleepless nights combing the length and breadth of Gauteng, Free State, and Limpopo.”
Masemola added that, after following all possible leads and analysing the gathered evidence, the investigation led them from the Grasmere Toll Plaza on the N1, past the Buccleuch Interchange, and onto John Vorster Drive. He said:
We had hoped to find our three police officers safe, unharmed and alive, but this is not the case.
The two female constables, along with the male constable, were travelling in a white VW Polo sedan from Bloemfontein to their area of deployment in Limpopo when they went missing. At the time of their disappearance, the officers were off duty.
With the assistance of the South African Police Service (SAPS) drone pilots, Cybercrime Unit, Hawks, Crime and Counter-Intelligence Unit, SAPS and Gauteng Traffic Air Wing, as well as the Bidvest Protea Coin Air Wing, police initially discovered vehicle parts believed to belong to a VW Polo along the N1.
This led officers to the banks of the Hennops River, where they discovered a Renault Kangoo panel van. Said the Commissioner:
Our SAPS and Tshwane divers immediately commenced with the search, where we discovered two bodies, one of the driver of the Renault panel van who it just came to light that he is one of our employees attached to the Lyttleton Police Station and the second body was that of Constable Senoge. We had to abandon the search as it was already dark.
This morning, the third body was discovered which is believed to be that of Constable Linda. We further found a fourth decomposed body; we are still trying to identify who this person is. Later this afternoon, we sadly found the fifth body of Constable Buys.
We are still searching for the VW Polo and our investigation is continuing. We don’t want to speculate at this stage what led to the discovery of these bodies in this river, whether it was an accident or not, our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle.
We would like to thank the families, and the task team involved in the search for working tirelessly to ensure a breakthrough in this case.
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