Pretoria – The family of slain Hillary Gardee and the Economic Freedom Fighters said the South African Police Service (SAPS) completely missed critical evidence at the crime scene where the body of the 28-year-old university student was found.
The SAPS on Wednesday confirmed that Gardee had a gunshot wound on her upper body after it initially reported on Tuesday that the slain woman had been discovered “with bruises on her body”.
On Thursday, a Gardee family spokesperson said the ship had sailed regarding the matter of the bullet wound.
“The discovery of the bullet is long overdue. It no longer adds substance to the conversation, so we have communicated that it has dented our faith in the policing system. If they can miss such a critical thing at a crime scene, they can’t. That crime scene no longer adds value anymore,” said family spokesperson Sinawo Thambo, who is also EFF national spokesperson.
“They missed a crucial part of it. We will be waiting for updates from them. Hopefully, they can redeem themselves and find these killers in due course so that the family can have a sense of closure as to why this happened to their daughter.”
Hillary, the first-born daughter of former EFF secretary general Godrich Gardee, was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1994. Before her untimely death, she was a student at the University of South Africa (Unisa), studying IT part-time while running her own IT business.
The 28-year-old woman went missing on Friday, April 29, after she was last seen at the local Nelspruit Plaza Super Spar just after 5pm.
She was with a three-year-old girl she was planning to adopt. The child was returned home safely after she was found in a street in Kamagugu hours after the pair went missing.
IOL