Accolades for warrant officer Rufus Baloyi kept coming at the Akasia SAPS Awards ceremony held recently to reward hard-working officers at their station.
Officer Baloyi received the certificates for the two cases that he has been able to crack and made suspects confess without the cases going cold.
In September 2019, when a young woman did not return from work, her family opened a missing person’s case after three days of her not returning home. Warrant Officer Baloyi started working on the case immediately and by midday of the same day, he had already obtained a confession from a 30 years old Mr Mabuse who was the boyfriend of the missing young woman.
Mr Mabuse told the Detective that he had murdered and destroyed the body of the woman, he also told the detective that he was willing to corporate and show them where he had disposed of the body.
This is when the Detective along with his team found the slightly decomposed body of the woman dumped in a field in Rosslyn close to a factory.
“Only the hair, boots, and the pants she was wearing were visible and that is how her family was able to positively identify her,” said Warrant Officer Baloyi.
The suspect was then apprehended and he went to court after three months, where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison. The family welcomed the sentence and thanked the investigating officer for bringing justice for their daughter.
In another incident in 2020, Warrant Officer Baloyi took over a case of a missing woman from a colleague which he had started to crack in just two months. This was after he visited the home of the missing woman in the Nkandla informal settlements, Rosslyn where she resided with her partner and her children.
He also learned from the neighbor that the missing women’s partner had taken his life following her disappearance.
“While in the yard I noticed a shelter that I was told was recently constructed after the women had gone missing. Upon further inspection of the shelter, I noticed a suspicious mark and then contacted the forensic department and they dug the cement and made a discovery of a body.
“After the body was sent for forensic tests, DNA results confirmed it was the body of the missing woman. The case was then converted to murder,” said Warrant Officer Baloyi.
The station commander of Akasia SAPS, Colonel Magagu Ginindza, said the efforts of the detective are appreciated and a program to train young and upcoming officers will be started so that the detective can transfer his skills.
