Police Open Murder Case Against Thabo Bester

The case was opened after it was discovered that the man who had been previously identified as Bester had died from blunt force injuries prior to being burned in the Facebook Rapist’s prison cell in May 2022.

After it was discovered that Thabo Bester, the man known as the “Facebook Rapist,” may have killed someone while plotting his prison break, police said a murder case was started.

Bester fled from the Mangaung Prison in May 2022, according to information released over the weekend by the Department of Correctional Services.

He was incarcerated in a high-security facility run by the global private security firm G4S and was serving a life sentence for murder and rape.

Bester died, according to the department, when his prison cell took fire.

The body discovered in the gutted cell, however, was not that of Bester, according to new information, and its DNA did not match that of the woman thought to be his mother.

Details regarding his escape raised serious questions, particularly how he managed to get away from the prison and go unnoticed for so long.

According to national police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe, “A case of murder is under investigation following the outcome of the DNA analysis that confirmed that the body of the deceased, which was found, was not that of Thabo Bester.”

The autopsy report went on to say that the deceased had already passed away before the arson event and had perished as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.

Bester may have killed someone during his prison break, according to the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), and this likelihood should not be discounted.

According to Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo, the Correctional Services Department should look into Mangaung Prison management for the numerous gaps in Bester’s escape story even though a murder case should be started.

This begs the questions of whose corpse the burned body is and how it ended up in cell 35.

The union claimed that because the center is under the control of G4S and is run by private and foreign businesses, there has been negligence at the prison.