Criminologist and former head of the police’s psychological investigating unit, Gerard Labuschagne, says that police will make a big mistake if they don’t investigate the deaths of homeless people in Pretoria as the work of a serial killer.
He says because of the intimate nature of the crimes it is possible the killer knows the victims.
The body of the fifth homeless person was discovered at a bus terminal not far from the UNISA campus in Muckleneuk on Wednesday. Police have confirmed that the victims were all middle-aged men and were killed at night in the past three weeks.
They have confirmed that two homeless men have given statements to the police. They were attacked and injured in the Muckelneuk area.
The two men claim they were attacked while sleeping, by a man wearing a balaclava.
Labuschagne says, “Whenever we find bodies in a similar geographical area and the victimology is similar, all males, females or children, and you have a similar type of wounding to the victims then one would want to look into it and it’s safer to assume you have the work of one or two people, until you have information to the contrary, because the last thing you want to do is wait too long before you react with the necessary expertise in a serial investigation.”
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