Residents laid flowers where Riaan Syster’s body was found. Picture supplied
Cape Town – A Malmesbury family has been left traumatised after they discovered their son’s dead body dumped on their doorstep.
Riaan Syster, 31, had been brutally beaten and stabbed to death, allegedly by his two best friends.
The hartsore family say they watched in shock as their home in Fresia Street was cordoned off with crime scene tape.
Sister Rinene, 29, says the family were woken up by the distraught cries of their father, who discovered the body shortly after 4am on Saturday.
“We were all sleeping and we didn’t know that he left his bungalow. But we heard my father screaming and ran out and found him lying there in front of the house,” she says.
“It was horrible, we thought he was still alive because his one eye was open.
“We covered his body with a blanket to try and keep him warm, but when the ambulance got here, they said he was already dead.”
Rinene says the confused family started making enquiries in the community, and that’s when they discovered there had been an argument between Riaan and two of his best friends.
“We didn’t know what was going on, but the community told us they came to call Riaan out of his bungalow and he went out.
“Residents just said they heard him saying: ‘Soek julle vir my?’ (Are you looking for me?) Then they started beating him. The one suspect hit him in the head with a baksteen and he fell flou (collapsed).
“The other one stabbed him 12 times and he bled internally.
“We are so shocked because they accused him of robbing someone, but my brother wasn’t like that, he worked paving the roads here in Malmesbury. They could have talked to resolve the matter.”
SAPS Captain FC van Wyk says the Malmesbury Crime Prevention Unit (CPU) arrested two suspects on Monday morning.
“Two suspects, aged 23 and 24, were arrested after police received information regarding the murder.
“The murder weapon and the clothing the suspects wore at the time of the incident were also found and confiscated at their homes.”
The duo will make their first appearance at the Malmesbury Magistrates’ Court today on murder charges.
Meanwhile, Malmesbury residents have started several social media pages calling for justice for Riaan.
“The residents laid flowers on the spot by our house where his body was found,” says Rinene.
“He has a nine-year-old daughter who lives in Eureka Estate and she can’t even talk after being told what happened to her father.
“We are very traumatised and now every day we must walk past the spot where his body was found. We are not coping after seeing him like that,” says Rinene.
monique.duval@inl.co.za
Daily Voice
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