“We Didn’t Need To Share Details Of Hillary’s Murder”
Mpumalanga police defended themselves on Wednesday, saying that not disclosing Hillary Gardee’s shooting did not mean they were unaware of it.
“Earlier on, the police in Mpumalanga reported that Ms Hillary Gardee, aged 28, was discovered murdered with bruises on her body. However, after further investigation by our forensic team, it was revealed that she was shot on her upper body. The police conveyed such message to the family, which does not stop them communicating how their child was murdered to other family members and friends,” said Col Donald Mdhluli.
“A team comprising different disciplines within the police has been assembled by the provincial commissioner in Mpumalanga, Lt-Gen Semakaleng Daphney Manamela, to investigate the matter. The investigation is under way with a view to arrest whosoever is involved. The police in Mpumalanga are at no stage going to reveal the stages of the investigation to the public but to the relevant family. It is against this backdrop that police request space to investigate this gruesome murder without any disturbance,” Mdhluli added.
This response came after the Gardees chastised the police, claiming that they only found out about her execution-style shooting in the back of her head through her postmortem.
“We had gone to get an update from the postmortem in terms of what happened to Hillary and we have received information that the bullet wound was in the back of her head, which means that she was shot almost execution style,” said Sinawo Tambo, spokesperson for the EFF and the Gardee family on Wednesday.
He said the family’s biggest concern was that police on the scene did not pick up that Gardee had been shot.
“This is gross incompetence. It does not need forensics to identify a bullet wound on the body. This means that police did not conduct thorough investigations of the crime scene and at this point … it is too late. That crime scene has been contaminated. People were doing walkabouts with the media there,” Tambo said, adding that this cast doubt on whether the police would properly investigate.
Hillary Gardee, the eldest daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee, was discovered dead on Tuesday outside Mbombela, four days after she was last seen alive.
She was last seen shopping with her three-year-old adopted daughter at a Mbombela plaza on April 29. The little girl was discovered unharmed near her home.
Tambo stated that the family was concerned that the motives behind Gardee’s kidnapping and murder might be much deeper than a common criminal act of kidnapping and extortion for money.
“There may be more underlying and serious circumstances because the trend we see now resembles the murder of Tshegofatso Pule, the murder of Karabo (Mokoena), and the Western Cape (murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana),” Thambo said.
The Gardees are expected to hold a press conference on Thursday to discuss Hillary’s funeral arrangements.
