The remains of a retired Pretoria lecturer killed several years ago have been returned to his family.
|||The remains of a retired Pretoria lecturer killed several years ago have been returned to his family, police said on Friday.
Colonel Tummi Shai said Abraham Moema's remains had been kept at the Ga-Rankuwa government mortuary since June 2011 while police tried to establish how he died.
The former Soshanguve Technical College lecturer was reported missing in March 2010.
“A few months later, it was rumoured he might have gone to Botswana. His younger brother, Papi Moema, went to Botswana to search for him but was only told that Abraham last visited the country in 1979,” said Shai.
A year later, paving contractors who were employed by his daughter Mathlodi, 34, discovered a shallow grave in the house's back yard and alerted the police.
“The body was exhumed. Investigation indicated the deceased was stabbed to death.”
Moema's wife, Martha, 54, and his two sons Moseki, 23, and Kgopotso, 27, were arrested for Abraham's murder.
Moema's daughter, Mathlodi, who employed the construction workers to pave the yard, was arrested for trying to destroy the evidence.
“It is suspected that Moema's pension fund was the motive behind the crime,” said Shai.
Martha and the two Moema sons remain in police custody. Mathlodi was out on R1 000 bail. The case would continue on September 5 in the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrate's Court. – Sapa