Three people have been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of a British couple in South Africa, whose bodies were dumped in a crocodile-infested river. Rodney Saunders, 74, and Rachel Saunders, 63, were kidnapped while searching for rare seeds in the Ngoye Forest in KwaZulu-Natal in 2018.
Kidnapping and torture
The couple, who held dual South African and British citizenship, were setting up a camp beside a forest dam when they were attacked by a gang linked to ISIS. The attackers tortured them for their bank account details before hacking, stabbing, and battering them to death. The victims were then cocooned in their sleeping bags and thrown into a river full of crocodiles.
According to the Daily Mail, Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 46, his wife Fatima Patel, 36, and Malawian national Musa Jackson, 43, were convicted of the murders last month. A Durban court sentenced them to two terms of life imprisonment, with concurrent jail time for kidnapping, robbery, and theft.
ISIS links and evidence
The court heard how Del Vecchio and Patel were linked to ISIS at the time of the crime. Investigating police officers found Islamic State literature and a flag during a search of their home. The gang leader, Del Vecchio, a Muslim convert, had identified the couple as a "good hunt."
The gang forced the Saunders to reveal their bank details before killing them. They then drove off in the couple's Toyota Land Cruiser, with Rachel and Rod's bodies in the back. The bodies were dumped into the river, where they were savaged by crocodiles before washing up.
Investigation and identification
Investigators tracked the gang through a trail of credit card spending, which included purchases totalling over £32,000. Heavy blood stains linked to the couple were found inside the vehicle. Post-mortems revealed that Rachel had been hacked multiple times to the back of her skull with a machete-like blade and stabbed repeatedly in the upper back. She had also been battered with a heavy blunt instrument, believed to be the same weapon that caved in her husband's skull.
Due to crocodile attacks and decomposition, their bodies were unrecognisable. It took two pathologists and a dental expert using DNA analysis to identify them.
