Identifying the Forgotten Victim

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Visit streeteasy dot com to buy a rent in NYC Street Easy is an assumed name of Zillow Inc, which has licenses in all fifty states Hey, it's Ry Reynolds from MitMobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited preremium wireless for fifteen dollarars a month is back So I thought it would be fun if we made fifteen dollars bills, but it turns out that's very illegal So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at midmobile dot com slash swwitch Upront pay forty five dollars for months ninety dollars for six mons or one hundred ninetyllars forelveth, reired fifteen dollars for month equival to taxes extra. initial term only greater than fifty gigabyes be slow network is busy ts. Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Cash Crimlas. As always, I'm your host Simon What happens here, one of my writers in this case Emma, Thank you Emma has written a script the fery Eescape of Tarbo Bestter I have to say I don't know what all of these episodes have come out in, but this is a relief because the last episode I recorded, in fact, I did it just yesterday, was called The Toy Box Killer. And then I recorded another episode the day before that that was, I think it was like about the worst serial killer in American history. So it's quite nice that this guy's gonna to be escaping from prison because honestly I could use a break from people You don't want to know what the toy box is I mean, you probably do You're probably going to watch that episode or listen to it, however you this shows it's on YouTube as well as the podcast. but it is I promise you that and I am glad that I have a little break from that today. So let's jump in In the early hours of the third of may twenty twenty two, all so recent, choir voices reverberated along the dimly lit hallways of Broadway, the segregation unit of Manga Won Correctional Center in Blomfonttee, South Africa At around two o'clock we were sleeping. Then we heard an explosion. After the explosion, we all woke up, even the other inmates. We could all smell the petrol, and we opened the windows while questioning What is going on Everyone could smell the petrol, but we didn't know where it was coming from Is it diesel or petrol? What's the one that smells really good? although not everyone likes the smell? When I'm at the petro station, I'm filling out, I can't know which car it is. I've got diesel car and a petrol car, and like one of them I think it's diesel. I think diesel smells real good and you're just like Yes. And I know it's probably terrible. It probably gave me cancer, but yeah, I mean, let's hope not Black smoke started billowing down the hallways, and the inmates covered their mouths and noses with blankets and clothing while others scrambled to open their windows. The inmates started pressing the panic buttons in their cells while they shouted and cried for help, and the smell of burning flesh mixed in with the petrol fumes. Oh my god. o never mind like At least this is another episode where people get horribly murdered. No, they just get burned to death in a prison Also, I didn't realize prisons had panic buttons I was in the movies it's like, o, what happens in the su' like you in some like skinhead area dude cool. John and yeah, he's just gonna to stab you in your sleep and there's nothing you could do about it. That's how I imagine prison Now stand back, I gotta practice my stabbin it's not like, oh yeah just press the panic butt and everything will be fine Oh yeah, but by that point, John has stabbed you like seven hundred times with a sharpened toothbrush Between twenty and forty minutes later, we heard the second explosion. The second explosion was worse than the first one Back in the control room, a report came in from one of the wardens that there was smoke in the corridors of Broadway. The two control room operators checked the CCTV footage but couldn't see any signs of a fire. so they contacted Broadway's unit supervisor, who ordered the guard who had reported the fire to deal with an emergency elsewhere in the prison At four AM, the control room operators reported that they confirmed that a fire had broken out in cell thirty five and finally set off the emergency alarm while making numerous calls to the oneo one eleven emergency police number, which went unanswered I've never seen that as as slow as nine nine nine or ninele one or one one two or one fifty eight here in Czech where I live, also one e two because that's all across Europe you can use. Fun facts with Simon, also, why aren't the police picking up when the prison calls you to say that there's a problem That should be like a priority I don't know, the prisoners could be murdering They're prisoners is what they do. I mean, some of them. Maybe some of them are not murderers By then the fire had been extinguished and cell thirty five was cordoned off. The walls on the right side of the cell were black with acrid smelling soot. The mattress had been overturned and was now a burnt out husk, and a charred body lay underneath it At four twenty six AM, a nurse arrived at cell thirty five And we then overheard from the nurses that Tarbo Bter. Dead Just before we continue with today's episode, let me thank today's fantastic sponsor and that is of course, Shopify. What does Shopify do? Well, they are the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage your business. Look, whether you're just starting out small, whether you've just come up with an idea and you're like, yeah, yeah, no, I should make that a business. This is a great idea. We'll go over to Shopify, get started and it really is that simple. You'll be good to go in no time and you might be thinking, well That's all fine well and good, Simo. but when my products start selling extremely well, I'm going to have upgrade to some big boy platform, aren't I? And the answer to that is absolutely not because Shopify grow with you. Whether you are just starting out or whether you have Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of sales I don't know that you'll be fine no matter how big you get because Shopify will be there growing with you. And not only do they power ten percent of the entirety of e commerce in the United States. They power giant brands like allbirds, Rothies Lin so you know that you're in good hands. and they operate in one hundred and seventy five countries worldwide. So that's fantastic. and oh, they have a converting checkout. So when you get to that checkout page, theirs converts thirty six percent better than other leading commerce platforms, which is nice. So your customer gets that page, thirty six percent more likely to check out, which is fantastic. So sign up for a one dollar per month trial period at shhopify dot com slash casual all lower case. Go to shhopify dot com slash casual now To grow your business, no matter what stage you're in, shopify d. com slash casual and now back to today's episode Who was Tabo Bestter Tarbo Bestter was born on the thirteenth of june nineteen eighty six in what is now known as the Chris Harneoney Burag Wanneth Hospital in Soaoo, Johannesburg soer too, not so a toe. Oh, I've always pronounced it's sow a toe. Apparently it's soer too. His mother, Missy Mabasso, who had later claimed that she'd been sexually assaulted nine months earlier, and as such, she didn't know who Besta's father was Macy never reported Bter's birth to the Department of Home Affairs, and as such, he was never added to the National Population Register and didn't have an ID number or a birth certificate. Isn't that going to be a bit of a problem when you need stuff as an adult Like as a kid, I'm sure you could get through life without having like an ID. But when you become an adult, you's likeah I want to learn to drive a car And then'll be like, okay Just uh I suppose I because I have air I didn't see my birth certificate. I'd never seen my birth certificate until I got married. And then it was like I was like, yo Dad. You' got my burstific somewhere and he's like, ye Yeahah, probably. Let me have a look and I'll dig it out. And it's like some ancient I mean not ancient, I'm not that old, but it was like from nineteen eighty seven, this birth certificate handwritten. I'm like, o,ks' never seen it before. but I've never needed it up to that point in my life I don't know how it works, like when I applied for a driver's license for the first time They just send it to you obviously in the system, because I'm not this dude. but I feel like not being in the system is going to cause like problems in your life The only record of his birth was a note that was made in the hospital's ledges. In order to explain the discrepancy between their surnames, she' later tellld journalists from the independent newspaper Ground up that Besta was her grandparents' surname At the time, Macy was still living with her parents, Joanna and Abel Mabosso on a farm in Eichenhof just south of Johannesburg, and they would look after him once his mother returned to work. Macy would later tell local news network EWN that quote, I raised him till he was one year. When he was one year, my mother said I must give her the child because she will look after the child while I was working When Bter was two, his sister, Stompy was born, and Macy left her two children with her parents so that she could move closer to work. I'll go to visit and I'm coming back. At the end of the day, my mother, she shouted at me every day. She pushed me away. When she pushed me away, I said no, I'll stay at my place. I won't go there again Qote ends, diffifficult to read, quote, by the way At one point, Macisy went back to collect her two children so that they could live with her. But she was now living in a tin shack in a black township and Bester insisted on moving back in with his grandparents because he didn't want to live in a simple two room shack in a township. Yeah, That's not Unreasonable. How old was he However old you are, it's like also your grandparents have raised you since you're one. So you're going to be much closer to them. And then someone arrives and it's like y, you' got to come live in a shack with me. A're they like, bh. I just want to stay with my grandparents. Thank you very much. I like the house more and I like them more. You left me when I was one mother Best I would later tell forensic and investigative psychologist Dr. Gerard Lab. Boocunny Emma even spelled that for me phonetically and it's still hard. That life with his grandparents wasn't ideal since he grew up poor and claimed his grandparents were alcoholics. Oh, okay. it sounded like quite nice compared to but he didn't want to go Tim shhack They worked as farm labourers, which meant that his grandfather would work the fields or help to tendnder to the cows and his grandmother kept house for the family. Bestter would play with the other farm workers' children, and when they got into trouble, his grandfather, Abel, would beat him as punishment. This was the nineties though I was South Afric which I assume just generally got rid of corporal punishment later. Like my dad's from And he was like, Yeah, when I was a kid, they used to beat me. And my mummy' not. He's like, what? What are you talking about? When you were a kid, it's like myrandparents got beaten and it's like, yeah they were just like a little bit slower on getting rid of And if I remember right, my dad said like the prefect at his school could beat him And then when he became a prefect, it was the year that they took away the ability for the prefects to beat the kids, like with a whip And I don't think he was disappointed, but he'd be like, Goddamn. to get whipped so hard Not much else is known about Bestter's early life and what we do know was pieced together in the last year. Oh yeah, because this is all super recent. According to Nelen Low, they'd owned a luxury eco lodge just south of Johannesburg in nineteen ninety and when Bestter was four years old, he came and knocked on their door, asking for food The Low family took pity on the small boy and gave him food and clothes. This became a habit of his and they took pity on the small, kind, soft spoken but poor and neglected boy. He played with their children, and they gave him free reign inside their home, not knowing he was stealing whatever amounts of loose change he could get his hands on. But then Bestter's grandfather allegedly discovered a pile of cash that Bestter had been hoarding, and Bestter told him that mrs. Low had given it him. accccording to mrses Low There was a knock on the back door, and there stood a grandfather in this small boy. The old man asked if I had given money to the child I said no An old childhood friend of Bter's would later tell on News twenty four that they'd known Bter for most of his childhood, and had always thought that he was a kind, friendly boy to quote, I'll never forget when he got into the car for the first time. I felt so much for him. I was privileged, and I saw that his parents were torn. We bought him some groceries and dropped him at his granny's h. They were so poor that they lived in the deep south of Johannesburg It always felt like he was a brother to me, but it seems even as a kid, he was deceiving people He was polite and the nicest person. It seemed to be his modotor' operanda and it fooled even my mother and father I felt he was the brother I never had. After the end of apareid in nineteen ninety four, children of all races were encouraged to attend school together to help with social integration. According to Steve Mabona, the Gaoteng Department of Education spokesperson, Johanna and Abel first sent the eleven year old Bter to attend a predominantly white Africaan speaking school in nineteen ninety seven. Because he didn't have a birth certificate or even certified documents that confirmed that his grandparents were his legal guardians The school had to jump through multiple hoops to get him registered as a pupil. Mr. Mabona would later tell local news channel ENCA that quote, We cannot deny the education of a child because he lacked documentation. We have a constitutional obligation to provide education to all our children. Okay so yeah not having documents did prove to be a hassle, but not an insurmountable According to the book, The Farbo Bestter Story by journalists Mauricia Damondons and Daniel Stein, Bestter was three years older than the other kids in his class and didn't do well in school, but he excelled at rugby and athletics and was well liked by the teachers and other students. In nineteen ninety nine, Bestter befriended a boy named Zanade Coch When Zanade was two years younger than Bestter, and Besta would spend most of his time with Zanaid's family, possibly feeling that it was a safe haven for him. According to Zanaade's mother, Shenaz, Bestter would come home with Zenaid after school, spend the afternoon at their house, and then would go home. During school holidays, Besta was a constant fixture in their home, and at one point, Sennaaz must have asked him what his home like was life because qu He always used to talk about his grandmother He loved his grandmother. I asked him about his mum and he told me no, he doesn't have a relationship with his mother, his father passed on Eventually, anid's parents became Bter's unofficial guardians. They bought him clothes and paid for his school trips and took him to church, and Senaz would later tell ENCA that quote Bester was a lovely child. He was always laughing, he was very kind, not abusive, not bullying any of the other children. He was never in any trouble that we could say we had to go to the school In may two thousand two, Bestter was fifteen when his grandmother, Joanna had a stroke according to Macy got high Tardo's not there My mother's sick, I bring her here. With her help, we take her to the hospital After she died very t When we finish burying her, Tabo's not there We were looking. We couldn't find him Before she passed away, Joanna had told Macy that Dabo had been visiting with her friend and would return home soon This friend was Zenade, but it sounds like Bestter never returned home once his grandmother had passed away. The sixteen year old Bestter dropped out of school in september two thousand two, his final year of primary school. Unbeknownst to, oh I was like primary school, but I guess primary school ends at sixteen in South Africa. Unbenownst to Zenaade's family, Bestter was now living in a shack in a local township along with a group of men that had taken him in He would later claim that they'd abused him sexually in return for their protection and that he did what he had to do to survive. This also meant that he regularly mixed with the criminal underbelly in the township and they would teach him the skills he needed to survive. According to Bestter, I resorted to crime to support myself. It is either you die or you make a plan The Seranade was now attending Hyde Park High School, but he was still friends with Bestter, who'd drop in every now and then to visit his best friend. According to Senadaz, my phone went missing in the house one day. We were all looking for it And he helped us look for the phone and we couldn't find the phone. And the next day he left early When Bestter exisited their house, he was flush with cash and Chanise asked Zanaid whether he thought that Besta might have stolen her phone. Zunid told his mum that the phone wasn't even worth the amount of money Besta had in his possession, so she dropped the issue. Then money started disappearing around the house. Besta would disappear for days on end, only to be dropped off by men in fancy cars, and he would take Zanid on shopping trips, after which the two of them They return home dressed in brand name new clothes and wearing golden chains around their necks. Bter is up to that sort of money at that age in this situation It's crimes. Maybe drugs In two thousand four, the eighteen year old bestest was already a practicice con manan. o, okay, con manan then. It's better than drugs I suppose. C command's kind of like glamorous compared to like drugs, which is just you know, not glamorous He had stolen Sineade's high school blazer and would wander around Hyde Park, an upmarket suburb in Joannesburg, wearing Hde Park High school uniform. Sineade's blazer was lined with badges and it enabled Bester to pretend that he was a top academic student, good at sports and that he was a head boy. and he used this persona to con caring, well meaning suburban mums out of thousands of rnd In the book The Tarbo Bestter Story, one of these mums, Karen Van D Merv, explained that she met Bestter one morning in september two thousand four. He'd been hitchhiking in his stolen school uniform, and when she asked if he needed help, he told her that he didn't have money for a bus fare and was now late for school. She offered to give him a lift, and on the way, Bestter told her that his grandmother was in hospital and that he now had to take care himself. He also told her about an athletics championship that was taking place in Durban, and he couldn't afford to go. Just like the Lowe family, Karen took pity on the well spoken friendly young man who spoke fluent Africaans and offered to help him out. She booked a plane ticket for him in a room in a hotel, gave him spending money, and promised to drop him off at the airport. Wow. person On the way to the airport a few days later, Karen was listening to Bestter ramble on aboutout his life and the red flag started popping up.Qote, I was driving into the airport, when I noticed two holes in his ear looad By then he had told me a lot of things that didn't ring true, and I suddenly realized that this was not the decent child of a about Christian Granny Just in case her statement regarding the earrings confuses some people. backack in two thousand four, the Afrkaans community in South Africa was still very conservative, like Mormon level conservative. The idea that a well brought up Christian schoolboy would have multiple piercings in his ears, or, heaven forbid, a tattoo, was unheard of. It's because of their strict conservative and hypocritical upbringing that in the early two thousands, Africaans teenagers rebelled and started listening to rock bands D Antbord and fuck police car AKA f off police car. Anyway, once yeah, it's like if you go too hard in one direction, your kids are going to rebel in the other Anyway, once Karen realized that Bter wasn't who he pretended to be, she called a friend of hers, Belinda Watts for advice. Belinda Watts's husband was the renowned investigative journalist Derek Watts, one of the late presenters of Carte Blanche. And Belinda told Karen that the boy in her car was a known con artist. Belinda told Karen to keep up the pretense that she was taking Bestter to the airport and then Belinda would have the police meet him at the airport. Soon after they arrived, Karen's car was surrounded by police and the eighteen year old best was arrested. That seems like quite heavy. he's just coning her out a little money. It's not good, but it's not like We need to surround her car with police. Can't we just go to his house later and arrest him? He's not a violent criminal, he's just a con man. Unfortunately, Karen decided not to lay any charges against him and Besta was let go. A week later he scammed another woman out of two hundred grand and stole a third woman's purse. The two of them reported him to the police, and Besta was arrested yet again Best of the con manan Best was still wearing Zenid's blazer when he was arrested, and Zenaid's father went to collect it from the juvenile detention center where Besta was being held. According to Senaz, my husband told Besta, I'm very upset and angry with you. Please stay away and don't come to my house again. When Bestter was released from the Juvenile detention Center six months later, he called his mother to come and pick him up. It was the first time she'd heard from him in over seven years And Macy would later tell the newews Network EWN That day was the last day I saw Taro. After his release, Bester worked hard on his craft. he initially lived on the streets of Johannesburg and became a petty thief. He also claimed that he used to sell fake concert tickets to university students in Praetoria, that he once rented out a pub in Soa two for a fake event and charged the eight hundred attendees an extortionate entrance fee before fleeing the chaos, and he ran various fraudulent modeling and promotional agencies all over the country. Wow he stepped up his game coning eight hundred people, that's quite agressive. As I dont I don't like it. It's just there's something like There's something fascinating about comp people, isn't there? Like, I'm fascinated by this I don't know why Why are people so fascinated by con men? Because I feel it's not just me. There's like all sorts of books about this stuff. I find it very interesting. Later he'd go by the alias Tom Kelly and would contact beautiful women via Facebook. The charming Dom would tell them that they were the next best thing and invited them to hotel rooms and restaurants to attend glamorous photo shoots during which he would rob According to the book The Tarbo Bestter Story, an advertisement for Africa'sext topop model did the rounds in newspapers in march two thousand nine. According to the ad, America's nextxt top model was looking for Southern Africa's next big star, and auditions would be held at the Santon Convention Center. It cost four hundredrandars to enter, and the winner was set to win one hundred thousand dollars seven hundred thirty one thousand rnds in cash ash money baby. It was based on a real campaign called West Africa's N next Top model that had been launched in two thousand eight and even used the same poster design to make it seem more legitimate. ETV, a South African television station that had permissed to broadcast America's next top model, issued a statement to the media to warn all models and modeling agencies that the competition was a scam. had already paid their entrance fee to the organizer, Tom Kelly, and they reported him to the police, resulting in Besta's arrest. Unfortunately, he was able to post bail and was released shortly after A week after his release, Bestter tried to convince Anton Taylor, a representative from the University of Cape Town's Student Council to lab to organize a photo shoot on the campus. Bestter claimed to be the owner of an American television network called Black Entertainment Television, as well as the owner of a local network called Bad Schoolboy. But when Taylor met Bestter, he grew suspicious when mister Big businessman wasn't able to answer simple questions about his company or planned photo shoots That doesn't sound like a very well prepared con manan. Also, how old is he at this point? It's like, yes, I own an American television network, black entertainment television, and one locally as well. It's like, how old are you Is I know you don't It was then bestclaimed that he'd lost his bank card and asked if Taylor could spot him some money to pay for his accommodation that night and the spell broke. Taylor reported Bestter to the police, and just like that, Ba was back in prison He was found guilty on two charges of fraud and spent some more time in prison, though no one seems to be sure exactly how long his sentence was. In the last year Malboo people have come forward to claim that they'd once been scammed by Besta, but we don't have any proof of these alleged crimes. However, we do know that shortly after his twenty fifth birthday, Besta went from petty thief and scam artist to serial se assaultter Oh no. I was like, this episode' is going to be just nice one about a con man and a thief And now he has to do some six crimes. Wh? In twenty eleven, Bestter had placed several advertisements in local magazines, calling on models to audition for a role as an MTV presenter, but he would also contact potential victims through Facebook. A twenty four year old model agreed to meet him at a city lodge hotel in Durban on the nineteenth of august twenty eleven and was immediately charmed by him He had been richly dressed when he met her in the hotel's foyer and graciously escorted her up to one of the bedrooms. Later, he would end up sexually assaulting her by knife point and demanding that she tell him the ping codes for her bank cards. The model fought back, and Ba stabbed her in the stomach and tried to strangle her. Oh no what After she passed out, Bestter left her for dead, taking her cell phone and bank cards with him, and then went on a shopping spree at a nearby mall. Bestter, what are you doing This is you're obviously going to go to prison for this She knows who you are basically. you're spending on the cards. There's going to be cameras. It's when is this twenty eleven? Come on People that this is very bad criming Luckily, the model survived the attack and was able to call for help. A week later, it'd attack a twenty six year old model in exactly the same way. She too survived the attack and both women reported their attacks to the police. Shortly after, the police launched a manhunt for Besta and called him The Facebook R wordist. Thank you for making it weird, YouTube. Yes, Yes, this early in the video how are in twenty three minutes mayaybe we're safe using the R words, but Yeah, YouTube doesn't like that. My videos get turned to yellow on YouTube, which means I don't really make any money. So I gotta be careful. At the time, Best was dating the twenty six year old Nom funu Tai Hulu Nonfudo worked as a car salesperson at a BMW stealership in Sand and Johannesburg, and she met Bester shortly after he was released from prison in early twenty eleven. Bestter bought a new BMW one series from her and used his charm telling her she would be perfect for a new TV show's planning The two of them dated for eight months and on the nineteenth of september, twenty eleven, Bestter and Nom Fundao flew down to Cape Town for a romantic holiday. They spent two nights at a luxury hotel, then moved to a bed and breakfast on Sunset Beach. According to Bestter, the two of them argued on their last night together because Noom Fundo had realized that Bestter was still seeing other women. At around two AM the next morning, Bestter decided that it would be best if he cut Noom Fundo loose So he attacked her and threatened her with a knife, demanding that she should hand over a laptop and cell phone. Oh my That's a unique way to break up with someone. Nomfundo fought back and in the ensuing struggle, Bester managed to stab her in the chest. He tied her up, demanded a laptop's password and watched as she slowly bled out He took a shower got dressed. his bags and left the room at seven AM. He told the owners that she was still asleep and that he needed to live to town. That afternoon, Besta got on a plane and flew back to Durban. Nomfundo's body was only discovered at nine PM that night. Okay so he became a murderer So much for my dream of like it's like, yeah, it's about content on no does crimes Oh no he's a murderer U the Facebook A wordist At the time of Nomfundo's murder, the Kaazulu Natal police were still looking for Bter The media reported that he was wanted for attempted murder, sexual assault and robbery, and the police had a list of all thirteen of the aliases he used, with News twenty four reporting that one of the alias he used was Thomas Bestter He had multiple Facebook accounts and even used them to taunt the police, posting the following status updates on one of his profiles Catch me if you can, why are people still bothering me? After he murdered Nomfundo, Bestard deleted all of his Facebook profiles before he went into hiding, and then he told everyone to call him Mr Boyyson, which was a subtle taunt since he'd learned that Detective Boyyson was the one who was investigating his crimes On the sixth of october twenty eleven, Bestter hijacked a car in Alberton, a suburb south of Johannesburg. A police chase ensued and Bestter crashed the car, resulting in his arrest. He was taken to the police station, and there, Bestter mockingly told the officers on duty who he was, explaining that Detective Boyyson from Kuazulu Natal was looking for him Detective Bson then took Bestter back to Durban where he appeared in court a week later after being charged with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of robbery During the trial, Bestter plleed guilty to all charges, but during his mitigation hearing, he reportedly told the court that he was a father to three daughters and that as a father, he would never sexually assault anyone. After all, wait, didn't just say plleed guilty? What are you doing? Do you know have a lawyer telling you what to do After all, he was a victim of sexual assault himself. He claimed that he had once been held as an older man's plaything for more than a week and had frequently been molested while hitchhiking. He had been molested both as a child and a teenager, and had been sexually attacked while he was in prison for fraud, resulting in him needing an operation done on his behind. Bestter reportedly broke out in tears during the hearing and told the court that qu I know I have done terrible things. This is not truly who I am. I want the opportunity to make things right Bestter told the court that the reason why he had decided to plead guilty to all charges was to save his victims's families the pain of hearing what he'd done to their daughters. But despite his claims of abuse, Magistrate Sharon Marks told Bestter that, quote, You may regret your conduct, but that does not make you remorseful. You have not explained what motivated you to commit these crimes. Magistrate Marks then sentenced Bter to spend fifteen years in prison for each sexual assault as well as another ten each charge of armed robbery, which was a total of fifty years. That is a long time. That is about what he deserves, isn't it? However, he'd already been implicated in the murder of Nomfundo Tai Hulu, and on the third of november twenty eleven, just three weeks after he'd last been in court, Bester appeared in court in Cape Town and was charged with one count of murder. Dror Lau Skatney would be asked to interview Bestter before his trial, and during the discussion, he tried to get an idea of the type of person Bestter is Dr. Lbu Skashney, would later tell journalists Marcia Damens and Daniel Stein from Ground Up that best have displayed signs of a personality disorder that he was a narcissist, had a complete disregard for the consequences of his actions, and had been confidence that he wouldn't be caught and needed to feel in control. It's not why I feel confident that he wouldn't be caught. He seems like a bad criminal Like N' in like he's doing bad things, which he obviously is, but he's also pretty sh doing those bad things. L in terms of evidence and witnesses and stuff like this.' justs not he's not obeying those crime rules. A recording of their discussion went public in april twenty twenty three, and during their conversation, an animated bestter discusses his crimes, claiming that he hadn't even known that he'd sexually assaulted those women until the police started looking for him The sexual assaults happened in a way that I didn't know what I was doing with sexual assault until I left the premises. If I knew I was doing sexual assault, I could have covered myself up using certain methods so that my fingerprints were not there. So it only became known to me that I did sexual assault when I left. bro. you sexually attacked someone at knife point What do you think sexual assault is? He also told Dror Labaskatchney that he felt he didn't deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison for Nomfundo's murder. According to Bter, hidd her feelings for her Initially, she was just another target, but after they spent two days together, he'd started to feel something for her and he hadn't meant to kill her Didn't you stab and strangle her Like and then left her to die quote him, I feel that I'm not somebody that you should worry about leaving in a room with me, that I'd sexually assault her. The murder, I feel was just a pure we fight over a knife, somebody gets stabbed in the process. And it was not my intention to never kill anyone My intentions with her were straightforward I liked her. Things got twisted whenever they got twisted and we had a fight. The knife got out of hand. She got stabbed. I tried to stop it If I went to the cops and said we had a fight and she got stabbed in the process, no one was going to believe me. The first thing to do, obviously, was wake up the owners of the BnB, let them come and call the cops and get an ambulance there. But I thought if I do that, that's like me saying, okay, I did the murder That is my reason for running at that point. but not taking this away. I also feel I am responsible for her death. Yeah, you are, you stabbed her Because if I did not bring the knife, she would not be dead if I did not ask her to come she wouldn't be dead. I'm responsible for her death, that is one hundred percent certain. I'm not responsible for killing her. I did not kill her. I'm sure if I wanted to kill her, I'm not a stupid person. I could have done it in a way that the cops would not even know that it was me At the end of the interview, Bestter asked doctor Labiskatchney if he would be able to convince the court that Bter's abusive past was a mitigating circumstance, which might result in Bestter receiving a lesser sentence for Nomfund Doe's murder. But dor Labuskatchchny told Bestter that it all depended on the plea deal that the lawyers would be able to draw up for him and that his so called abusive childhood wasn't an excuse to sexually assault others, yes, because as we bring up many times in the cash of criminalals, plenty of people have shitty backgrounds many of them where they're sexually abused, and they don't all turn out to be fucking murderes, do they? Following their discussion, Bestet decided to plead guilty to Nom Fundo's murder, and on the sixteenth of august twenty twelve, Judge Judy Cloette sentenced him to life imprisonment. During her judgment, she said The fact of the matter is that in your own version, this was nothing other than a sequence of brutal and callous acts which deprived this young woman of her life. It also deprived her loved ones of her presence in their lives. In these circumstances, the community at large will rightly expect this court sentence to reflect the seriousness with which crimes of this nature are regarded. No less sentence Mangoun Correctional Center If Taro Eester's story had ended when he first arrived at Mangoen Correctional Center or MCC, as it's known, today's episode would only be thirty minutes long, but it doesn't end there. And according to Dr. Labascatchney, when I got involved in this case, it was actually not particularly interesting case. He was a guy who had sexually assaulted two people and killed someone We saw countless cases like that. He was not an interesting person at all. He becomes interesting because he escaped the way that he did. Oh he escapes prison In the beginning That was his death in prison. So is he escaping in prison? then going back in At the time of writing, MCC is owned by a company called Blomfontaine Correctional Contracts or BCC. BCC consists of five separate shareholders, all have a twenty percent stake in the prison. They're oldld mutual, a Pan Africa insurance company, three bllack empowerment companies, and the British security firm G four S. of course, because G four S somehow have their hands in everything. They're like that real life umbrella corporation those resident evil things, they just seem to do everything and have a massive private army I think that it's like Their L Prime army is massive Or like their private security force or whatever it is. G four S is scary. In two thousand, BCC was awarded a twenty five year long contract with the Department of Corrections, and it has been speculated that this is mostly because the numerous political figures who were all shareholders in these black empowerment companies would greatly benefit if BCC won the contract. That sounds mega corrupt, doesn't it? The contract stipulated that BCC had to build and operate a state of the art prison and then hand it over to the department once the contract expired in twenty twenty six. It was to serve as a trial run for privatizing the prison system, and in return, BCC would receive a one off amount of three hundred million rans which would be used to build the prison As prison started operating, they'd receive a monthly payment, which would total about one point five billion Rnd over the course of the next twenty five years. However, in april twenty twenty three, it was reported that by february twenty twenty three, the department had already paid BCCN amounts of one point seven billion do Rnd and was expected to pay another two billion Rnds before the contract expired in twenty twenty six. Oh my lord that went' over budget didn't The prison has been operational since two thousand one and can hold up to three thousand prisoners. G fourS is charged with the overall management of the prison, but they employ several contractors who are responsible for various aspects of the prison's daily management. G fourS trains the wardens and security personnel, a company called Integriton, Integrated Solutions, manages the surveillance and security systems, and another company provides medical care another provides food to the inmates. Manga Won is considered to be a prime example of what a modern prison can be, and G four S proudly displays its name outside the prison walls But in two thousand eight, the University of Whitwaterraand published the Wit Justice Project and reported that there had been over five thousand allegations of abuse in the prison since it started operations, including the habitual torture of inmates, forced injections of antipsychotic drugs and overall treatment that was considered inhumane in terms of the Nelson Mandela rules, which are the UN standard how prisoners should be treated five thousand allegations of abuse She will torture Guantanamo Bail some Multiple investigations were launched. A documentary called Prison for Profit took a deeper look at how MCC treated its inmates, and in twenty thirteen, the Department of Corrections or DCS took control of MCC for three months after the inmates managed to take a female warden hostage while the majority of the wardens were on strike. The department handed control of MCC back to G four S after ten months, but in return, they wanted to be reimbursed for a hundred million do rarand that they'd paid G four S during this time. That court case is still ongoing According to several whistleblowers, some of the wardens at MCC are not only particularly cruel but they're also corrupt to the core. They deal drugs like weed, heroin, and crystal meth, or tick, as it's known here. And according to one witness, they'd confiscate a cell phone in one cell and sell it to a prisoner in the next one ption is fucked up, stop this Because of the rampant corruption that is present in the prison, most of the inmates at MCC own brand new cell phones and regularly post videos of themselves on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, showing off their high flying lifestyles and five star amenities Ready This is a modern prison It sounds like those prisons from prison break. you know, when they go to Mexico Some of these witnesses claim that the prison is run by several gangs and that if you have the money you can quite literally get away with murder at MCC. One in the wouldotel grounds up that If you are a gangster, you are king. You are respected by the management and security and almost everyone is scared of you, unlike if you're not a gangster Shortly after arriving at MCC, Bester befriended members of the Bulgarian Mafia and other fraudsters who were turning time at the prison and quickly learned the lay of the land. What wass a Bulgarian Mafia doing prisoned in South Africa? How far afield, Bulgarian Mafia. Iid't even know Bulgarian Mafia was a thing One of the wardens would later tell Ground upp that, quote, Tarabo Ba was always hustling, always smuggling Maroy Mmpau, a former G fourS employee, told Carte Blanche that during his time working in the prison, the wardens were told not to interact with the notorious con manan, but despite this quote, Taro Bestter was running the facility. One of the inmates would explain that when I met him, I gave him the name El Chapo. He made an army for himself for protection. He paid people money so no would know what he was up to Bestter soon learned which warden's target, and he started winning their favor by bribing them into performing small favourors for him quoting, He'd come out of his cell and just look at you. He'd make a note on Monday. What are you eating? And on the twenty fifth when you get your salary, what's your behaviour? Are you smoking? What are you smoking? If you're smoking this type of cigarette, he'd know you're probably broke He asked for a pag of cigarettes here and a can of coke there, and it would eventually escalate to the point that he was wearing his own brand name clothes and slept on a comfortable mattress He wore expensive watches, had multiple cell phones, a Bluetooth speaker, a laptop, had access to the internet, and even recorded himself having solo dance parties in his cell He's got a laptop and internet. My what the Sort their shit out! Do they even have plugs in prison cells? How's he charging it? Initially, he used his internet access to try and convince the outside world that it'd been set up and that he wasn't guilty of the crimes he'd been charged with. He set up multiple profiles on Twitter using the aliases Tom Mot Sheepper and TK Nun Kwana, and would allegedly contact media houses offering the journalists to emailold him back incriminating evidence on corrupt government officials in exchange for money When that didn't work, he returned to his old bodus operandi and reached out to women via social media. He introduced himself as either a US based businessman named T K Nun Kwana or a local businessman named Tom Mot Sheeper, and who would offer them opportunities to grow their business and their wealth. Bestter also started several companies while in prison, the most notable of which is twenty country Fox Group holdings, JP Morgan Investment Group and Vibes Africa personally head hunted various people in the media industry, offering them extraordinary amounts of money to work for him. It's just this dude on the internet in prison and he's like hiring people and starting a media company. People fell for his scams, and at one point he employed over twenty people who worked out of a high end office building in Santon. What the fuck is going on? They all thought their boss, Tom Mot Sheppper, was based in New York, explaining why he was only available to conduct virtual meetings at night They were worked in ideas for multiple television programs that would never air, held auditions for TV shows that would never be produced and promoted events that would allegedly be attended by A list celebrities. Yet but where's the money coming from Like I understand how the money's being spent, but how's it coming in? On the thirteenth of june twenty eighteen, one of his companies hosted an expensive launch party at the Hilton Hotel in Santon, during which Bestter called in wearing a luxurious white suit and design a watch, and had the crowd sing him happappy birthday In the book, The Tabaot B Story, journalists Mauricia Damis and Daniel Stein explain all his known schemes in detail for four chapters. if you're interested in going, What the fuck is having your mind blown over and over, I suggest you check it out. I desperately want to read this book now. I find this sort of stuff, as I said, fascinating For now, there's something else we need to introduce you to before we continue our story, and I'm sorry, Simon, but the pronunciation of some of the various names is going to become increasingly difficult from here on out. I was already difficult Dr. Nandy. Nandipa Magudimana was born on the fourth of september nineteen eighty eight in Bazana in the Transkee, which at the time was known as the homeomeland of the Soa peopleople, which is similar to the Indian reservations that were established all over the US in the nineteenth century. At first, her family lived in a modest two room hart or Rndezville, but later they'd expand the house, sating on several rooms Nander Pp was five years old, the apartheid regime was coming to an end and a family bought a house in the previously whites only coastal town of Port Edward. According to her brother, quote, We were among the first black people in Port Edward to own a house, so you can imagine the transition. It was the end of apartheid and the tensions were high It was fascinating. I was eight years old, we could walk to the ocean because it was a hundred meters from our house. So as a kid coming from a deeply rural area and suddenly you've got white neighbors in the beach right there, it was mind boggling and amazing. We had to adapt well because we weren't used to this new life and how to carry ourselves. The difference now was that it was a suburban area, the house was huge, and there was indoor plumbing we never had in Bazana. We could hear the ocean from our bedrooms. For us as kids, we'd never experience stuff like that. Nandipa's father, Zoilila Secolini, became involved in the transitional government after the fall of apartheid in nineteen ninety four and would later become the first Black Dputy Mayor of Port Edward.other ran night school. king crazy that it wasn't until nineteen ninety four. I know it's like it shouldn't shock me because it's like obviously I know about this. nineteeny I was seven. it's like apartheid was just coming to an end. Jesus Christ, South Africa, get you sh together. Their mother ran night schools in the area and is described by her children as being a workaholic who barely had any time for them. Nandipa is described as being an angel when she was growing up. She was a straight A student and a prefect had an interest in swimming gymnastics, ballet and modelling. She would later explain that she had decided she wanted to be a doctor when she was six years old and in the newew South Africa This was entirely possible. Nandipa studied for a Bachelor of health science degree at Wittz University in Johannesburg and then went on to study medicine, becoming a qualified doctor in twenty thirteen. At December, the beautiful and hard working twenty five year old Nandipa married a forty three year old pediatrician who was known to his friends as Dror Mack, and they would go on to live a life of luxury. Well that's nice doctor Mack was a socialite and his beautiful wife fit neatly in with his glamorous lifestyle. They lived in a six bedroom mansion where they regularly hosted their celebrity friends, and some of their friends were there to explain that when you go to his house, you don't want to leave This sounds all really nice. what sort of horrible thing is going to happen to ruin this for me? Nandipa wasn't just a pretty face and she had some ambitions of her own. Yeahes she's a doctor. It's already pretty good. She worked in various hospitals for four years before she opened her own skincare and aesthetics clinic, Optimum Medical Aesthetics Solutions in twenty seventeen. Her clients were the Creme de Le Creme of Santon's High Society, and she would affectionately become known as doctor Nandy She appeared on local TV and radio shows, and soon became Instagram famous, making the Mle and Guardiian' list of top two hundred young South Africans and fifty powerful women In twenty eighteen, Glamour Magazine featured her in a full page article, saying, Yes, she stays the fashion game, but don't get it twisted. She ain't here to just be a face or to be a blesse. She is a powerhouse medical practitioner Bus womomen Even during the height of lockdown, Nantipa's clinic continued to flourish, and in june twenty twenty, she bought a brand new Porsche Cayenne for two point five million rand followed by a range Rover, worth four million rand just two months later, explaining in a Facebook post that she was so blessed and that hard work pays.eems a bit. Just two months later. Porsche Kion, which is also about SUV knotted off She went on expensive holidays, wore expensive clothes, and continued to slay like a queen. On the surface, Nipa had it all, a rich husband, two beautiful daughters and a thriving business, but it would come to light later that she had already been involved with Ba since two thousand six. What Why? Your life seems awesome Multiple people, including Aiea herself, would later claim that she'd met Bestter while she was studying at Wit. She was eighteen at the time and allegedly worked as a promo girl for a modeling and promotional agency that Bestter was running on campus. It's possible that Besta became aware of her success while in prison and re established contact with her sometime after her marriage to Dror Mac. Why would you continue if this if I was in this situation I'll be like, no, no, no I was eighteen and stupid, and now you've been in prison and I'm a famous doctor. Like hard pass on meeting up for coffee, allright In twenty sixteen, she registered Vibes Africa Incorporation International, one of Besta's fake companies, and listed herself and Besta as directors. What are you doing Prison records show that she first met him in prison on the thirteenth of january twenty eighteen, and she would visit him a total of twenty four times over the next three years. She would later claim that they became engaged in twenty twenty. Why are you doing this? I know he's like a con man so he's like very charming, I'm sure and all of this stuff, but this seems objectively a terrible idea During this time, Nandepa had quietly separated from the fifty year old doctor Mac, and she moved into a luxurious mansion in Hyde Park, Besta's old stomping grounds in twenty twenty one. She ran two companies on behalf of Besta, Aram Holdings, the construction company, and Doctor's Network Legacy, which ran events for medical professionals. Using these companies as fronts, the two of them were able to defraud Nandepa's friends and colleagues Out of an estimated fifteen million rands or about two point seven million dollars I'm doing theath song She bought a Range Rover for four million rarands. which is basically a third of fifteen million or two point seven. A Rangeover doest cost nine hundred thousand dollars. It's I used to drive a Range Rver. And it wasn't like a big and fancy one or whatever. It deffinitely didn't cost me nine hundred thousand dollars. That's insane Her new carefree life wasn't all sunshine and roses though, and soon the cracks started to show. Vand Depa didn't pay her annual licensing fees to the Health prorofessionals Council of South Africa, and in april twenty twenty one a medical license was suspended. She wasn't able to keep up the monthly payments on her porsche and tried to get out of paying for it by driving over the border into Zimbabwe and just abandoning the car there, claiming that it had been stolen She also introduced Bestter to her family over video calls and told them that he was TK, her business partner and mentor. It didn't take long for her brother to figure out that TK was the infamous Tabaal Bestter And he ended up blackmailing his sister for a hundred thousand rarand or five thousand three hundred and sixty dollars I'm sorry,' my maths. I don't know why I do public maths. It's a terrible idea. I'm just realizing Id probably added an extra zero to the price of that Range Rover, which makes it ninety thousand American dollars, which makes a lot more sense. Siri, what's fifteen million South African rarands in American dollars serious f and useless. Nandepa didn't pay up, and when her brother started telling everyone he'd listen that she was involved with the infamous Facebook R wordist, Nandepa took him to court for posting defamatory statements about her on social media, and her brother was forced to erase all records of his so called unfounded allegations. Between april twenty twenty one and february twenty twenty three, Nandepa seemingly carried on as usual as she kept posting inspirational posts to both Twitter and Instagram She went shopping with her daughters, drove around in luxury cars, went on expensive holidays, and continued treating her patients despite no longer having a valid medical license. She also managed the various companies she had established, defrauded more people out of millions of rnds, racked up thousands of rnds inebt, because despite robbing people of millions, she somehow could no longer afford to pay her rent, disappeared for weeks on ends, and in january twenty twenty three, she explained to her clients that she was fully booked and would reopen her clinic again soon How did your life become such a giant mess so suddenly? This is so crazy. Everything was going so well That is until a small newspaper broke the story that Taba al Bestter had escaped from prison and that doctor Nandy had helped him do it. Oh sh. Straight escape Bestter's plan to escape from prison wasn't as simple as hiring a helicopter, carving a revolver out of soap or climbing through a window while a prison guard patiently waited for him to take a piss, and yet the media would later refer to it as his prison walkout. First, Bter and A Dea recruited a prison warden that Bestter was friendly with, the unit supervisor of Broadway, Seno Harat Suahara Allegedly, Nandea offered to pay Matsuhara seven millionnd or three hundred seventy two thousand dollars in exchange for helping Bester escape from prrison. He then recruited T Boo Lip Polo, a TCCTV technician who worked for Integratron, and they offered him two point five million dorand for his part in the escape. Some of their other accomplices would be bribed with smaller amounts Others receive no money at all The first attempt was supposed to take place between the fifteenth and the eighteenth of april twenty twenty two. A few days before, Lipolo tested the security system by manually disabling the CCTV recording devices or DVRs for a few hours. Because CCTV cameras were still on and working, no one raised an alarm. However, to cover his tracks, Lipolo reported that there been of power outage And that as a result, they'd lost several hours worth of footage. Mandiba travelled down to Blomfontaine on the thirteenth of april twenty twenty two, and while she was in town, she took a trip to Blomfontaine Government Mortuary. There she identified one of the unclaimed bodies as belonging to her father. had already been dead for six months and had been killed in a hit and run incident on the ninth of october twenty twenty one. Nepa ass signigned all the necessary documents and requested that her father's body be taken to a local funeral home before they held a small funeral service for him The service was held under the cover of darkness and when the coffin was lowered into the ground it had to be weighed down with old. Oh wow, I see what's going on. She's stolen the body, hasn't she? Meanwhile, Bester had submitted an isolation request on the fifteenth of april, claiming that he hadd been threatened by the twenty six Numbers gang and that he wanted to be placed in the segregation unit for his own safety. He couldn't be moved to Broadway before the DCS officials approved his request, and he could only be moved if there was an empty cell available. But there wasn't. And because it was a crucial part of their escape plan, they decided to abort the escape attempt. According to several witnesses, Bestter received a late night visitor on the sixteenth of April, but no official records of this visit exist B cancelled his pending isolation request the next morning and the body that had kept on ice was thrown into a river, where it would be discovered by passers by on the twenty ninth of april. The mortary tag was still attached to its toe and it would later enable the police to link the discarded body to Nan deeper. Wellile that was a terrible idea, you should have obviously got rid of that and made the body unrecognizable. Why would you not do that Their second attempt were was scheduled to take place in the earlyours of Tuesday, the third of may twenty two. That Monday was a public holiday and MCC was guarded by a skeleton stalv. On the twenty third of april, twenty twenty two, Nandiba walked into the National Hospital in Blan Ffontaine and told the officials working there that she wanted to claim the body. She had told them that it belonged to the brother of a friend of hers, a Zimabean immigrant named Zando Moyo Once again, she had all the documentation she needed ready. She identified the body, signed the necessary paperwork, and then had the body transported to a local funeral home. Wow, you could just really go into hospital and take a body apparently. Just like they'd done the first time around, they held a small funeral late at night, but this time the coffin was weighed down by three ten kilo bags filled with cornmeal colyround driried maize, maisemal or Malipa as we know it On the twenty seventh of april, Nandipa's father, Zoila Scolini, rented a bucky, pickup truck or an Uzo at the O R Thambo International Airport in Johannesburg. That same day, Besta once again applied to be moved to a single cell Two days later, the unit supervisor, Matsuahara, drove the bucky to MCC. On the back was a wooden television cabinet that was scheduled to be repaired in the prison' skills development workshop and they'd hidden the decoy body inside of it W was in there? a wooden television? Jesus Christ, how big is that television? Youve fit a body in there? Once he arrived at the prison, Matsuahara was initially waved through the sally port because the guard on duty recognized him, but a supervisor insisted that as per prison policy, the bucky had to be thoroughly searched before he could enter the premises since it was a private vehicle. According to the witnesses, the supervisor was called away by a control room operator before this order could be carried out and Matsahara parked the bucky in the inner complex at MCC The cabinet was unloaded and was stored untouched in the workshop for the next year up that cabinet, there's dead body in there. That's gonna smell terrible. On the thirtieth of april, the inmate who was housed in cell thirty five allegedly applied to be moved back to general population. His application was approved, and he was dragged, kicking and screaming out of his cell, insisting that the wardens were going to have him killed. Later that day, Bester was moved into cell thirty five and he jokingly told the other inmates that he wouldn't be staying there for very long. To ensure that he wouldn't be inconvenienced while he waited to be spung from prison, the wardens even ensured that his cell phone, his laptop, and his other belongings were also moved to his new cell This is so corrupt Jesus Christ. On the first of May, Lip Polo, the CCTV technician, wheeled a black dustbin containing the decoy body from the skills development workshop into the prison yard and was caught on camera sweeping the yard to avoid suspicion. He dragged the dustbin towards Broadway's emergency door and entered the building by swiping his access key, bypassing the usual security measures altoget since as part of the control room staff he was allowed to access The cameras is didn't record in entering the building since the emergency door was located in an known camera blind spot and it is conveniently located across from cell thirty five LiPolo then dragged the bin to the dark room, or the solitary confinement room and left it there since the room was no longer in use. The next afternoon, LPolo seemingly left work at four thirty PM. but instead of leaving the prison, he hid in the dark room At seven thirty PM, he slipped into the control room once the wardens had finished roll call and unplugged the DVR system for the CCTV cameras in Broadway Le Polo then dragged the dust bin into Ba's cell. One of the control room staff opened the cell door for him, and Besta helped him unload the body and placeac it on the floor. They poured petrol over the body, placed Besta's mattress on top of the body, and then doused it in petrol as well. After that, Lepolo took his dust bin and hid away again Pretty clever It's pretty elaborate to be honest. At two fifteen AM, on the third of may twenty twenty two, there's a loud explosion somewhere in Broadway and a fire breaks out in cell thirty five. Matahhara orders the other wardens to attend to a fight that had broken out somewhere else in the prison, while he reportedly walked up and down the smmokefield halls in Broadway talking on his cell phone Besta's cell door is opened, and Besta and Matsahhara light a petrol bomb in Ba's cell. They close the cell door behind them, and the two of them slip out of the building using an emergency exit The second explosion is heard at around three AM Around this time, CCDV cameras outside the administrative building capture split second footage of what is thought to be three figures running away from the building. By four AM, Matsahara ensures that the fire is put out using fire extinguishers and the cell is corordoned off. The fire is officially logged in the control room's logbook, and later G four S would report that the fire only broke out at four AM Around five AM, the person whose charred remains are discovered in cell thirty five is declared dead and one of the inmates is ordered to clean the cell before the police arrive on the scene, possibly so that he could remove crucial evidence like the remains of the petrol bomb. The next day, the Department of Correctal Services would issue a media statement to explain that Tarbo Bestter had killed himself in his cell. Several investigations into his death were launched, but because no one suspected that it had escaped, these investigations would drag on for months. And just like that, Tarbo B That's pretty nuts. although who would choose to kill themselves by hiding under a mattress, covering in petrilon and setting it on fire? That sounds like the worst possible way to kill yourself From GIicCO Subconscious News, I'm Tammy Racing Thoughts broadcasting from your brain. Tonight's top worry. If something happens to your apartment and you need to like, stay in a hotel and pay for it, That would be crazy, right? Art Palpitations has more. That would be crazy, Tammy, but you got surprisingly affordable renters insurance through GICO, so it could be covered, giving you peace of mind I love a story that ends well. Next up, love stories. Are they all there cracked up to be? It feels good to worry less. It feels good to Geio. The Le Fest Carnival comes to Lawrenceville, at the Quicker Bridge Mall, july fifteenth through the nineteenth. Don't miss exciting rides. Stroll the midway, try your luck at cararnival games, and feast on awesome Carnival fare. Proceeds benefit Lead, a national nonprofit organization serving local law enforcement and educating students about the dangers of drugs and violence. For carnival hours, tickets, and special offers, visit the leadfest dot com That's the leadadfest dot comot Bring the whole family for unforgettable family fun. The Lefest Carnival at Quicker Bridge Mall on Route one and Lawrenceville The Le Fest Carnival comes Lawrenville, at the Quaker Bridge Mall, july fifteenth through the nineteenth. Don't miss exciting rides. Stroll the midway, try your luck at cararnival games, and feast on awesome cararnival fare. Proceeds Benefit Le, a national nonprofit organization serving local law enforcement and educating students about the dangers of drugs and violence. For carnival hours, tickets, and special offers, visit theeadfest dot com d That's the leadefest d. comot Bring the whole family for unforgettable family fun. The Lefest Carnival. At Quicker Bridge Mall on Route one and Lawrenceville Blowing the whistle. Ground Up is a nonprofit, human rights fooccused news agency based in Cape Town, South Africa. According to their website, Ground Up started as a project between the Community Media Trust and the University of Cape Town's Center for Social Science Research in april twenty twelve and became a standalone nonprofit in june twenty twenty. During an interview with Rebecca Davis, a senior journalist with Daily Maverick, journalist Daniel Stein explained quote We generally focus on stories of service delivery. We like to expose fraud and corruption, and mainly in areas that other investigative centres don't focus on. His colleague, Marcia Damons, explained that back in october twenty twenty two, their editor, Nathan Geffin, called her into her office one morning and told her that he had a prison story that he wanted her to cover, but that the details surrounding it was strictly confidential Qroting her, he basically asked me if I knew who the Facebook rpist was, and he told me that his name was Tabo Bestter Nathan told me that earlier that year in May, a fire had broken out in Bestor's Cell and he was assumed to have died by self immolation. But Nathan had received a tip off, leading him to believe that the investigation was dragging on, because at this stage, it had been about five or six months since the fire had broken out and there was no public updates on what was happening The whistleblower was Justice Edwin Cameron, a retired constitutional court judge and the head of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services or the JICS, which is responsible for overseeing conditions in prisons and the treatment of inmates. He told Nathan that the authorities had been aware that Tarobest had likely escaped from prison, and yet nothing was being done to find him. Marcia started her investigation into the story requesting updates from all the relevant stakeholders and got our hands on all the publicly available documents relating to Ba's death quoting her for the first couple of articles, it was mainly just me trying to understand what exactly happened the night of the fire and where the authorities were with the investigation. But obviously we were not aware of the fact that the story would end up blowing up in the way that it did. Yeah's a hell of a story, isn't it?s like moovie star prison break. During the course of her inquiries, Maria learned that following the fire on the morning of the third of may twenty twenty two, the police were called and arrived at MCC at around six fifty five AM The forensics team was called in and they arrived at ten thirty. The cell was processed, photographs were taken, and the body was moved to the State Morgue in Blomfortain All of Festa's belongings were moved to the administrative building for safekeeping until his next of king was able to come and collect them The only contact on file was Besta's uncle, and he was called and told that Bter had passed away. Once the police gave the go aad The cell was cleaned out and repainted and a few days later, a new inmate bestest place On the fourth of May, an autopsy had been performed on the body that was found inside a cell thirty five. The pathologist doct Jacobus Hendrick Faochet found the victim's cause of death was blunt force trauma and that he had already been dead for several days before the fire broke out. Well, okay, so it's not the guy They know this Why are they Is it that why are they covering it up or not investigating it? That seems crazy. Dude broke out a prison. Without going into the specifics, the pathologist noted that the body had been refrigerated at some point and had already started to decompose before it ended up in the fire. Wasn't it live there for like a year? didnn't we say that Furthermore, the body on his autopsy table measured one hundred forty five centimeters or four foot seven, and weighed approximately fifty point two kilos. But prison records show that Tabo Bester measured one point seven meters or five foot five. It's worth noting that bodies can shrink if they're burnt, but the body wasn't so badly burnnt that a height difference of twenty five centimeters could be explained away as a result of the fire Samples of his blood were sent away for testing and DNA analysis. Most notably, however, is that Dror Fouchet reported that the body smelled paraffin Meanwhile, staff working in the administrative building at MCC also reported that Bter's belongings smelled like petrol, and the operations director contacted the police to report that an accelerant had been used to start the fire, and since spontaneous combustion is not a thing, I just want to say well thank you, capaptain obvious. By this point, three different investigations were taking place at the same After Bestter's death was reported to MCC management, MCC director Joseph Monante tasked G fourS Audit and Risk Director Gerertd Bellerwd with investigating Bter's death and determining how they could prevent another similar incident from occurring again. Bllerweld and his team took statements from the guards who were on duty that day, reviewed the CCTV footage with the help of CCTV technician Toboho Labolo Check the various logs and timesheets to find out what had happened Bar of Bells, and hiseam. They found that on the night of the fire, the CCTV cameras for Broadway weren't recording, and as such, there wasn't any footage of what happened that night. They also found a statement made by unit supervisor Sanal Hamatzahara, which didn't match up with the events of that night, and that the cell locking mechanism had reportedly malfunctioned shortly before the fire was loggedlden distinction Sahara, and when he was unable to provide them with a verifiable account of his movements that night, he was reported to HR The two control room operators also faced disciplinary action and all three men would be dismissed in June of twenty twenty two Yeah That's it They essentially help with a prison break and they're just getting fired I feel like you assist a prison prison to get out of prison. sureurely you got to go to prison yourself And it's probably not going to be a good time for you because you used to be a prison guard. As part of their investigation, Bill Ad and his team requested a copy of Bter's autopsy report on the seventeenth of May, but would later claim that the police had denied their request, resulting in them dropping their investigation into the cause of Bestter's death and just ignoring the cause of it entirely. Instead, the police informed MCC management a week later that the investigation was now a murder investigation and as such, they needed more information On the second of June, Billiveld and his team provided the police with the information they'd requested as well as their findings so far. Meanwhile, JICS were doing their own investigation into how Tbo Bestter had offed himself. They requested information from both MCC and the police and they received reports from both parties, including whatever CCDV footage was available. It was JICS investigators who discovered the split second footage of the three figures running away from the segregation unit building that night, suggesting that Bestor had escaped Following the news reports of Bestter's death, Macy, Bter's mum, had contacted the police in order to lay claim to his body so that she could bury him She was told that his body had been moved to sewa to, but was denied access because of the murder investigation she was interviewed by a journalist and because of this interview, the police were able to track her down in june twenty twenty two. They took a sample of her DNA and on the first of July, the DNA analysis explained that B's DNA didn't match with the DNA of his biological mother Well I mean, obviously not, he wasn't the right size, but DNA is a good way to confirm it, isn't it? On the third of August, MCC sent a copy of their preliminary report to JICS and on the tenth of August, the police sent them copies of the autopsy report and the DNA analysis. Both reports indicated that it was likely that Tarbo Besta was still alive. And then, on the twelfth of october, twenty twenty two, an inmate wrote a letter to the Free State High Court to report that one of the unit supervisors had helped Besta escape from prison, and a fourth investigation was launched. When the invig report was published in December, it also confirmed that Besta hadn't died that night, and a copy of the report made it to ground upps reporters. On the eighth of november, twenty twenty two The Grounds are published an article titled Many Mysteries sururround the deeath of Facebookist Tabo Besto. It was followed on the twentieth of january, twenty twenty three by an article titled Murder at Mang Guan Prison. Leaked report shows Facebook Bist was dead before a fire broke out in his cell As round, then, the ground up editorial team realizeed that they might have bititten off more than they could ch, acccording to journalist Daniel Stein When the story came across Nathan's desk, there was definitely the type of conversation where we said that crime is not our beat. Obviously a sensational story like this is not our best, but I think the main reason why we took it on was that it was clearly a massive failure by the investigative authorities in this case. Yeah, a dude escaped from prison and left behind a body that was completely different to his body and you're still like E The assumption and thinking was that just by asking questions, putting pressure on the authorities that they would come clean and that it would pressure them to sufficiently disclose the truth and investigate properly. And it was by february twenty twenty three, so several months after Marcia had written her first article, and we realised that that was not going to happen and that it was going to be our job as ground up to expose this down on getting the story out as soon as possible The two of them teamed up, and on the fifteenth of march, Ground upp published the article that would thrust Tarbo, Bester and Dror Nandy into the spotlight. the Facebook is d in his cell or did he escape from prison? Hell of a good title, isn't it? No wonder this got attention Ground Up explained the basic facts of overcase that had already been covered in their previous articles. They then explained the celebrity doctor and deeper Maga Demana had tried to collect the body just days after the fire, claiming to be Tarbo Bestter's wife. The next morning, a woman called Ground Up and told Daniel that she was pretty sure she'd spotted Bestter at Woolworth's in Santon a month after his escape FI here in South Africa, Woolworth is market as a high quality grocery and a parl store. Basically it's our equivalent of waight troros in the UK. I've been to a Woolworth' U Wellworth's in the UK is justa doesn't exist anymore, but it used to be kind of a crappy department store. sort of thing But wor s in Africa Southfrica is quite n I went to Cape toown a few years ago And I remember where I was staying in the Airbnb was near Walworth, so I'd buy food there. It was nice She explained that she'd been shopping at Woolworth's on the thirtieth of june twenty twenty two when she noticed doctor Nandy shopping with her family. Her best friend adored doctor Nandy, so the woman was already familiar with her he stalked doctor Nandy and her family as they shopped and realized that the man dautifully following Dctor Nandy around wasn't her husband. He was well built, had long black curly hair that had tied back, wore a khaki coloured hoodie, faded jeans and sunglasses, and looked nothing like the fifty two year old doctor Mack the woman snapped photos of the adulterous couple to send to her friends, then forgot about them until she read Ground Up's article about Dctor Nandy's possible involvement in Taro besta's escape She provided ground up with copies of the photos, and they analyzed the metadata to confirm her story After comparing photos that had been taken of Ba during his court trials in twenty eleven to the photoship provided, Martia and Daniel knew that they now had the proof they needed to convince the public that Tarbo Besta had indeed escaped from prison. On the sixteenth of march, they published an article titled Man Rsembling Tarbo Besta spotted in Santrin nearly two months after his supposed death from prison fire And the story exploded By the twenty fourth of March, several media allts were reporting on his escape, and by the end of March, every single news story covered another aspect of the saga At first, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Police, and the Department of Corrections all insisted that Bestter had died in his cell that morning. But on the twenty fifth of march, the Department of Corrections or DCS finally confirmed that Tarbo Best had indeed escaped from prison and that the department's track and trace team had been authorized to hunt them down This came three days after Ground upp reported that another whistleblower had already reported Bter's possible escape to the department on the eleventh of june twenty twenty two. The question is, why are you doing something about this? Do you not care? I mean, I know it looks bad for you, but you have to D someone's gonna find out eventually A rental estate agency called the local newspaper The Sunday Times and reported the Bestter was renting a house worth twelve million rerand in Hyde Park, and on the twenty fourth of March, the media descended on only to find that Nandeea and Besta had already fled the house. Qoting On the twenty first of march at around nine AM, a staff member calls in a panic to say there are armed people at the gate busy breaking in. These thugs, I call them thugs, because they were armed under the hilt, wearing bulletproof vests and they came in driving Mercedes with blue lights on. They were just there to escort the removal vans which came to take away all their stuff. But once the furniture was removed, they stayed stripping the interiors, taking the stove and other furnishings. You could see they're let in a hurry because of the way the cupboards were left, all the clothes all over the place. so it looked like they' packed and left According to the estate agency that leased the property to them, Nandepa has champagne taste and had been paying a staggering sixty five thousandrand or three thousand four hundred dollars per month for the house that she was renting. She was also renting another property next door and was in the process of converting it into a clinic so that she could move her practice there. But in the months following investor's escape, Nandeepa had quickly been running out of money and work on the half finished clinic had stopped earlier that year The media took photos of the disarray inside the house, as well as the remains of the documents, cell phones and other items that had been hastily burned in the backyard. O You burn in those documents. On the fourth of April, the media reported that the police had finally decided to investigate the High Park mansion, claiming that they were looking for a Zimbabwean immigrant named Zando Moyo, the couple's gardener, since he hadn't been seen since an deeper andbestor had fled the property It was suspected that they might have killed him, so a fnsics team was sent to gather whatever evidence they could. However at that point, the house had already been thoroughly cleaned out and was again on the market, and the police were heavily mocked for being so late to the party. Overall, the police were tight lipped over their investigation into where Besterin and Deper had fled to, but anonymous source told City Press that quote, We have police officers stationed at the Lotho Namilia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini border posts who haveve been instructed to be on the lookout. As we suspect, the couple could be heading to another country. The search has g on been ongoing for a long time now and we think that they may have already left South Africa or are on their way out Insall issued a red notice informing international authorities that Bestter was an escaped convict, and on the seventh of april, twenty twenty three, the Justice and Correctal Services mininister, Ronald Lemola, issued a media briefing explaining that, quote, The Minister of Police and the Minister of Justice and Correctal Services can confirm that escaping Mr. Tabbo Bestter, with his accompled doctor Nandipa Magaduma, along with a Mozambiquan national had been arrested in Tanzania late last night It's crazy that this dude breaks out of prison successfully and then it's like, yeah, I'm gonna to hang around in this country Bro, if you escape from prison, you've got to leave. You've got to go to Lebanon or like a country that doesn't have extradition with South Africa because otherwise you're fucked Eventually they will come for you. You've got to leave. You don't have a choice. According to Velity, a private security company that is owned by G four S, they hadd been working closely with the DCS's track and trace team to track Ba down and had offered a reward of one hundred thousand rarands to anyone who could provide them with the information that would lead to Besta's arrest. They hadd been tipped off by multiple people, but Besta and Nendepper had been driving a black Mercedes benz which enabled the authorities to track them north through Zimbabwe and into Tanzania using CTTV footage. While the couple was staying at a hotel in Arusha, quote, they were spotted by people working with South African authorities. They were driving a black SUV and were followed from a hotel while heading to the border of Kenya. In their possession were several fake passports. You got a fake passport and you haven't fled the country? What's up According to the Minister of Police, Berky Se, none of them were stamped suggesting that they'd been crossing borders illegally, possibly assisted by the Mozambiquian national and the stacks of cash they still had in their possession. Why are you not in a non extradition country? Why like what's going on Bike Leave and never cross a border Like Interpol won't get you unless you cross a border, and you've got to go to a country where they're just not interested in you I guess the reason you can't like you can't cross a border with a fake passport because the fake passport is probably not that good. They're the sort of thing that would stand up to scrutiny. like I don't know, if you're like opening a blockbuster account or something, but if you cross a border, I don't know, whatever that machine they scam it in, and then they look at stuff on the computer I don't that's not just for show. They're definitely looking you up. The Tanzanian police contacted the South African authorities, who provided them with the information they needed to confirm Bestter and Niba's identities, and then a team flew to Tanzania to start the process of bringing the notorious couple back to South Africa. Back home, the public had mixed feelings about what had become known as the Best a saga. I hadd already written a short about it and emailed Simon to pitch this script to him. I think that's why I had the vibes at the beginning that this dude set himself set a body on fire Like I didn't want to spoil it for everyone, but at the beginning I was kind of like This dude's still in prison. This dude escaped from prison that's not his body. And I think now I know why because I remember it from this short. My family were discussing the various news articles on B's Arest around candle atit dinners, thanks to a particularly bad wave of load shedding, and various commenters asked questions like whyy will the focus on this criminal? The headlines should be what the Minister of Electricity is doing to get the country out of stage six blackoutouse There's a lot more to this that we'll probably never get to the bottom of. It would not surprise me if there was a senior ANC member involved. ANC is like the big South African political party, right The corruption is immense I'm confused, apparently, there were suspicions about his escape at the time, reports were issued about the anomalous autopsy results, among others, yet nothing seems to have been done by the various authorities until the ground up expose. It must have been a coordinated cover up with the blessing and support of some very senior management or am I missing something? Yeahet, that'sact that last one there, one about being confused? I am also confused How did they not look for him And they weren't the only ones demanding answers passing the buck Now usually this is the section where we delve into the core case suring the story that we're covering today. However, since the majority of the core cases are still ongoing, we're not going to do that. Instead, we're going to take a look at the two day parliamentary briefing into Bter's Escape that took place on the twelfth or thirteenth of april twenty twenty three. At the time I'm recording that's basically a year ago. So this is all very, very recent for casual criminalists The briefing was hosted by the Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Correctional Services and representatives from J fourS, JICS, Integrratron and DCS were all asked to attend. They all presented their case to members of Parliament and were then subjected to up to four hours worth of questions by these MPs. One of these MPs was Glinis Bretenbg national prosecutor whose hearted in questions made her Twitter famous and whose statements were most quoteeworthy. Over the course of those two days, anyone with half a brain could see that in the year following Bestter's escape the investigations into the fire in Cell thirty five had become so mired in bureaucratic red tape that it had been a shstorm waiting to burst, Judge Edwin Cameron, the investigative judge JICS, opened his presentation by admitting that he was the person who told Ground Up to investigate Bestter's escape. He also told the committee that at first no one wanted to believe that Bestter had escaped, which made them overly cautious during their investigations We now know much more about what happened. But it wasn't clear in the beginning, even as the facts started to come before us, even as we got to that postmortem report, it seemed beyond credibility that there was a faked scene an escape Cobus Gronwood, the regional commercial director of G four S Africa, led G four S's presentation and explained that they'd always been under the impression that Bestter had killed himself. After all, the police never indicated that Bestter hadn't died that day. G four S tried to pass the bark allegedly Wait was this called ye, this title was called passing the buck. It's like everyone's like, No it wasn't fa as the police. It it wasn' my fault as the prison. It wasn't fault as, G four S. He then went on to explain that G four S's only goal was to figure out where the holes in their system were, so a compliance orderit was ordered. Within a month, they'd identified several of the people who'd later be arrested by the police for their involvement in Best's escape to dismiss three of them They upgraded their security systems, fixed the holes in their controls, and moved on with their lives, trusting in the ever competent police to find out how Tarbobestter had managed to kill himself After all, since the prison opened back in two thousand one, they'd only had three escapes, all of which happened away from prison grounds. Best's escape was a rare phenomenon. I feel like there should be no escapes from prison. That should be your goal. It's like, no, two gu see people have escaped They how about that's not doing well Chief Os's management team seemingly didn't raise any concerns regarding how the cell had caught fire, they didn't try to find out who might have wanted to kill Bter or how they'd managed to murder someone in their custody Oh yeah, this does I'm always like I was told it was like a suicide thing. I'm like, ye, it's a suicide, but this does seem more like a murder, doesn't it? Because it's like a brutal way to die They didn't try to find out what had motivated at least three of their employees to shirk their duties that night, and when multiple inmates from Broadway emailed prison management from their illegal cell phones and tried to report the best had escaped, they were told to use proper channels of communication and mail them a letter. inststead Are you sh me? GRS would claim that fully cooperated with all the stakeholders involved, which included the police, JICart corrections, but all of them would complain that getting information out of G fourS was like squeezing water from a stone and that when they visited MCC to talk to witnesses or some of the wardens who'd been on duty that night, they that didn't cooperate with them or had been transferred to a different prison Judge Cameron would later tell the committee that the police had already told both JICS and G four S that Besta had likely escaped back in august twenty twenty two. In fact, Judge Cameron had personally informed the director of G four S in november twenty twenty two that Besta had escaped that night. They just chose to turn a blind eye to the fact. According to Judge Cameron, what happened that night wasn't a rare phenomena. It wasn't a rare incident. It was the culmination of a process of degradation and rottenness The police commissioner on the other end explained that they'd known that something was fishy from the moment they'd entered Bestter's cell. They opened an inquest into Besta's apparent demise, and when the autopsy report arrived on the sixth of mayay, three days after Besta's escape, they suspected that they were now dealing with a murder However, the day before, Nandepa had arrived at the morgue in Blomfontain to lay claim to Besta's body. She told officials that Besta was a customary law husband. AK they're married by way of a traditional African wedding and their marriage isn't necessarily registered with the Department of Home Affairs and requested that his body should be moved to Swa to so that she could arrange for his body to be it. Sounds like an excellent way. to make that body that is clearly not him disappear Constable Lgoa, a member of the investigation team stationed in Blonfontaine, was the one who noticed that Nandipa had already laid claim to two other bodies within the span of a month and reported it to his supervisor, Brigader Sui This is mad suspicious. Like you're claiming multiple bodies I't want them That's you got to get on some list Brigadier Shuai then called the Morgue in Sau and told them that no one was to remove Besta's body from the Morgue, which led to Nandepa filing an application with the High Court in Praetoria, asking her Besta's body to be released to her immediately. Brigadier Shuai then contacted the state's attorney who ensured that Nandepa's application was denied and the vital evidenceKA the decoy body didn't go missing she's literally trying to burn the evidence And that should not be happening But this is where the investigation took a wrong turn. You see, during their presentation, the police explained that from the beginning, their investigator herz were assisted by the National prorosecuting Agency or the NPA. They were literally running all over the country looking for witnesses and interviewing people. and every time that they presented their case to the NPA, they were told that they still didn't have enough evidence to warrant an arrest warrant The problem is, the higher ups were no longer focused on investigating Bestter's death or apparent escape. they were convinced that Nandepa was dealing in illegal body parts and that they just stumbled onto a major criminal organisation No No, He just escaped from prison and they use the body guys It's right there in front of you They were convinced that Nandea was just a small fish and that they had to wait for the big fish to show their faces before they could arrest her. And yet no one kept an eye on movements in the monks following Ba's so called death If you genuinely believe that you're tracking some major criminal organization that's selling body parts for some reason, then maybe keep your eyes on her. This is all very incompetent, isn't it? And corrupt alsoso that they wouldn't jeopardize their highly confidential investigation by alerting them deeper in her cronies that they were onto them. Meanwhile, Macy had provided the police with her DNA. and when the DNA didn't match the DNA of the decoy body, her DNA was matched to others on the system, and it came to light that the police didn't have a record of Best's DNA on file. The commommissioner explained that because Bter had plad guilty during a sexual assault trial, his DNA was never compared to the DNA that had been found in his victims' bodies, so it was never loaded into the system, and the original samples were destroyed. Instead the police had to find other members of Taro Besta's family who were able to confirm that Macy was his mother Only then were they able to deduce that Tarlo Besta was probably still alive, and on the tenth of august twenty twenty two, they presented their findings to the JICS. By July, multiple people had already blown the whistle and informed JICS representatives that Bestter had escaped that night. Some of them were wardens who worked at the prison, and some of them were inmates in Broadway, all of whom were transferred to new prisons to keep them safe. Judge Edwin Gammera, meanwhile, was growing increasingly insistent that they had to warn the public of Bestter's escape He called Minister Ronald Lemola, the Minister of Justice on the twenty sixth of October to warn him that Bestter may have escaped. The minister then called the National Commissioner, who explained that the situation was, quote, broader than just an escape. There are multiple bodies, there's a suspicion of a scheme. There's a huge network that is being investigated that might be alerted with any process that might jeopardize the investigation The minister claims that he did ask the National Commissioner to prioritise the case and that whenever he followed up on the case, he was told that the investigation was still ongoing Tment of Corrections, meanwhile was busy with their own investigation It seems that they were mostly focused on G four S's management of the prison and how it differed from how DCS managed their prisons. They also suspected early on, that Tarbo Best had escaped and yet nothing was done In the meantime, the police were waiting on DCS do a headcount of the inmates at MCC and confirm that Bestter wasn't somehow hiding in another cell before they could file the necessary paperwork and officially start investigating his escape, which was only done on the sixteenth of january twenty twenty three That meant that by october twenty twenty two, six months after Bestter had escaped, the Minisry of Justice, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Department of Corctions, G fourS and the Pice, had known that Tarbo Bestter had escaped. yet they all waited until march of twenty twenty three, when the reports on the matter were finalized before they did anything about it, by which point the people of South Africa already wanted to know would warned them that a serial rapist and killer was once again free. It's insane. And also those early months, you gotta go get him. You gotta be fast because otherwise, I mean if he wasn't an idiot, he'd inside he'd be in Lebanon already When the committee asked the police commissioner and the head of the Department of Corrections why it had taken them so long to warn Besta's victims and the public that Besta had escaped, they both offered the same excuse. G four S had hindered their investigation because they'd insisted that Besta had died that day. G four S insisted that they complied with all of the requirements stipulated in their contracts with DCS and Minister Lemona apologized the Ba of South Africa warning them of best's escape sooner, all the while insisting that he'd done everything that was required of him at the time. Minister Becky Seeley, our idiotic Mister of police also offered his apologies all while explaining that they had to prioritize their investigation into their make believe body part smuggling ring. What is the motivation for body partarts smuggling I don't Why? What what's reason what's the reason In response to that, MP Ginness, Brton Bark would say that quote, Why you are so busy protecting the secrecy of your investigation? If Bester had murdered another woman had attacked another woman, what would you have said then? Clearly, there were sexual assault survivors out there trying to live their lives and hoping not to run into Bter while out shopping for groceries, but nothing was done to support those people. warn them protect them It's an absolute disgrace that the victims of this man were not warned, we're not prepared, we're not protected. It's an absolute disgrace and you should hang your head in shame all of you. Yes, you're godamn right. The chairperson of the commommittee closed the parliamentary briefing by explaining that it had been a necessary process and that the commommittee would draw up a list of recommendations parties involved to implement How about one of the recommendations, get the guy once he escapes from prison faster One of the recommendations was that the Department of Corrections had to end its contract with G four S and take full control of the Prectional centre following the dismissal of the Director of Contract management, the Controller deputy controller. Most South Africans weremllified by the show of parliamentary power and went on to complain about stage six load shedding instead. But there was one question that most South Africans needed an answer to. Who did the body in cell thirty five belong to? Isn't it just going be a random body Like, didn't she steal it from a morg The forgotten victim On the twenty second of april, twenty twenty three, we got our answer and multiple newspapers reported that the body in cell thirty five had been identified. He'd been the thirty two year old Capligo Mfolo, an unemployed father of two from Blonfontaine. He was born in nineteen ninety, was raised by his grandmother and his aunt.is mother was working in Johannesburg at the time and he met his father, Balfo for the first time when he was a teenager He grew up poor, but liked to play soccer, and proudly supported his local soccer team, the Blonde Fontaine Celtics. He used to work as a waiter at various fast food restaurants, but struggled to keep a job acccording to his aunt,ote, He he really loved his children. It hurt him that he couldn't support them financially, but he had so much love them. According to his cousin, Catlelgo's dream was to become a celebrity, to be in the media be no He's not He's not been killed by any of our characters in today's episode, though He's just died some Other way Catlego went missing sometime around april twenty twenty two. He disappeared from social media which alerted his father that something was wrong. Bathao then travelled to Blomfontainne to look for his son, and the family only reported him missing in mid May. According to the police, Catlego had collapsed in town one day and was taken to the National Hospital. the staff did what they could, but he passed away later that night due to a severe brain injury later his cause of death would be in question, but once the news ofb best's escape broke, his autopsy would reveal that he it had suffered blunt force trauma to the front of his head, suggesting that he'd been attacked His missing persersons report would later be compared to the forms Nand Depa had completed when she'd claimed the body from the National Hospital's Morgue and enabled the police to finally identify him. They asked for samples of his mother's DNA to confirm this, and according to Bartho, at that time, police did not tell us the DNA was for testing the body found in Tarbovesta's cell. It was only when we got the results that it was discovered body. is Cat Leg goos It has been speculated that Cutlego had been targeted specifically, and at first, everyone involved inbest's escape was charged with murder. No, he's just a random body. Unfortunately, who was attacked, but that's a different investigation However, since the National prorosecuting Authority was un'table to prove that he'd been murdered, the charges were withdrawn. Of course, now Catlego's family has a vested interest in seeing Bter and Deeeer and their accomplices appear in court so they can account for the heartbreak that they'd inflicted on Catlego's family. Best a saga Over the last year, Bester, Neea, and their co accused, appeared in court on multiple occasions for their bail hearings, most of which were approved. The charge sheet listed twelve people in total, and nine of them have been charged with multiple crimes Charges against three of them have been dropped completely by december twenty twenty three Tarbo Bestter was charged with fraud, violation of a body, corruption, arson, defeating the ends of justice, and of course, escaping from prison. He made headlines when he appeared in court wearing clothes worth tens of thousands of rarand and claimed that he wasn't Bestter since the Department of Home Affairs couldn't prove that such a person existed. The judge laughed at his claims, pointed to him, and said, There is a person in the accused box happens to be Taro Besta. ively dismissing Besta's claims The Department of Home Affairs would later confirm that with the help of Macy, they'd been able to assign Bester his own ID number and he was issued with his very first legal ID. Since he' lasted to serve his prison sentence, he was sent back to prison and is currently being held at Kagosi Mampurutu Management area, a maximum security prison in Praetoria, the same one where Rosemarine Nadlovo is currently being kept A yes, we've done a video on that to previously Nandipa was charged with fraud, violation of a body, corruption, arson, assisting an escape from prison, harbouring and concealing an escaped offender and defeating the Ege of justice. Initially she appeared in prison wearing a hood and mask in shame for her actions, but she has since dropped the act and made news headlines for openly flirting and holding hands with Ba while they attended trial Despite their canoodling, as one journalist put it, she has claimed that Bester had kidnapped her before they fled to Tanzania and then claimed that her extradition from Tanzania was unlawful. This has since been disproven, and she's currently being held at Johannesburg prison. She's the big surprise of today's episode. I was like, wow, this person's doing great. and then it's like what have you done to your life Their other co accused faced similar charges and included Nandepa's father, whose involvement shocked everyone familiar with him. It'd also gone into hiding after the news broke that Nandepa had likely helped Bester escape from prison, though his involvement only seemed to be that it'd hired the bucky that was used to transfer the body, as well as Nandepa claiming that the first body she'd claimed belonged Seno Haam Matzuahara, the unit supervisor, who so blatantly failed to perform his duties that night, also appeared in court. Despite being promised seven millionrand in exchange for helping best escape, he'd only received eighty five thousandnds or four thousand five hundredican dollars and had used the money to put down a deposit and take out a loan on a brand new Volkswagen Ta Rock which was worth about six hundred fifty thousandnds. The monthly payment on the T Rock is nine thousand five hundredrand and since Mattsora was only earning between fifteen and eighteen thousandars a month at the time, this drew the attention of his colleagues whod later informed the police of this extravagant purchase. Yeah, it's like If you're a cop in a low paying job and stuff like that and you suddenly start having money, that's mad suspicious. Youve gotta come up with a good story like your rich uncle died or something Taboho Lopolo, the CCTV technician who'd switched the cameras off that night, had handed himself over to the police once the news broke that Bestter had been caught, claiming that he was fearing for his life. He'd later explained that he'd only received forty thousandnd for his role in Bestter's escape and basically confessed all during his time in court The two central contro room officers who'd'd been on duty that night had also been arrested, but one of them would later be acquitted of all charges. Four G Forest prison wardens were also implicated because since charges against two of them had since been dropped I'm not going to mention them here Zandem Moyo, Nandipa's gardener, was also implicated in the escape, had also gone into hiding shortly after the news of B's escape broke and his disappearance had sparked the search of the Hyde Park mansion. According to ENCA, he knew that Besto was an escaped convict and had been handsome re reimbursed in return his secret From what I've read, the investigation against BesT is still ongoing, and then DePA's trial is set to begin in February of this year That's about now actually, in Blanfontaine's High court. and one of the questions that the public still wants answers to is why did a beautiful wealthy, intelligent woman like that get involved with a piece of scum like Ba? It's a fantastic and mysterious question. I think he's just mega charming We've already discussed the phenomen of Hbristopilia or Bonnie and Clyde syndrome on this channel, but most of those cases involve serial killers who won't ever leave prison and most of those women end their relationships with their soulmates once they actually spend some time with him. One example is from our episode on the Casanova killer in which Paul John Knowles went to live with his fiancee, Angela Kovich after he was paroled from prison Angela soon realized that Knles wasn't quite the charismatic romantic hero that she thought he was and she dumped his ass. But there are some women who fall for a killer and then break all of the moral codes to please them One of these is Victoria Compton, who discussed in our episode titled The Real lifeife Harley Quinn. She' fall in love with Kenneth Bianci, one of two serial killers who would collectively become known as the Hillside Strangler and at his request had strangled a woman named Kimbreed to death. Another example is Carla Hamulka, who we covered in episode Pul Bernardo and Carla Hamulka, the Kenon Barbie Killers. Today, together with her husband Paul, they sexually assault over twenty women and kill at least three. Paul had emotionally and physically abused Carla for the entirety of their relationship, and Carla only turns on him after she'd ended up in hospital as a result of one of those beatings. Forensic psychiatrist Graham Glancy would explain that she was a classic example of Bonnie and Clyde's syndrome, and where Paul scored thirty five out of forty on the psychopathy checklist, Carla only scored five Now compared to these two women I think it's fair to say that Nndepa was indeed the bonnie to Besta's Clyde. I think that at first, Nndepa was motivated by greed. She achieved her celebrity status and lavish lifestyle by marrying her much older husband, and when he could no longer provide her with what she needed, Besta stepped in to fill that void and promised her wealth beyond her wildest dreams Just like Veronica, Nandepa committed most of her crimes while Besto was still in prison, and lavished in the millions of rands that she was raaking in, spending it on expensive cars and luxurious holidays and decorating her Hy Park mansion. Once he was released, however, they lived together like an ordinary everyday couple, and maybe Nandepa thought that she could change him By that point, they were quickly running out of money, which would have put a severe strain on their relationship. I think Besta would have continued to pressure Nan Deepper into taking part in bigger, more elaborate crimes, but she was already struggling to keep up the appearance that nothing was wrong. But I don't think their relationship would have lasted much longer. As soon as she stopped being useful to him, Besta would have cut her loose as well, leaving her to face the ruin of her life Come if he lets her live that is During an interview with journalists Marciiao Dammens and Daniel Stein, forensic investigative psychologist Dr.or Gerhard Labasachni explained that I think everybody's a means to an end of him. I don't only think he cares about anybody. You're only on his radar for as long as you have some benefit to him. If you don't have benefits anymore, you're out. I' not saying he's going to kill you But you serve no purpose He doesn't care. happens to you Sounds like pretty psychopathic, doesn't it? So maybe going to prison is the best possible ending that doror and Nandy could have asked for. We'll just have to wait and see if South Africa's legal system feels the same way And now for some dismembered appendices Number one Early in may twenty twenty three, the Department of Corrections announced that they were ending their contract with BCC. BCC had ninety days to prepare before they had to hand the prison over to the DCS, or alternatively they could attend a mediation session where both parties could decide how they were going to move forward. mediation session failed, and the matter to be taken to court. For now, Manguang Corctional Center is managed by the Department of Corrections, but as far as I know, we're still paying G four S millions of rnds in taxpayer money until their contract term runs out in twenty twenty six, I feel like this is like allegedly, in my opinion. I don't know what the contract says, but letting someone escape and do nothing about it allegedly is kind of like I feel like maybe the contract should be ended a little bit an early, maybe, my opinion. not legal two The Coch family kept in contact with Bester. Throughout the ten years he spent in prison, they visited him, attended family days and other prison sponsored get togethers, and all the while he keep trying to get them to give him money, reportedly claiming that he was diabetic, and needed money for better, healthier food. Classic con man continues the con And even when people know they're being cons, they're somehow taken in by him. It's quite impressive, really Number three, In september twenty twenty three, Marcia Damons and Naniel Stein received the prestigious Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity for their work on the Tar of Esta Story The award is our version The U. S is pullit surprze Be the release of the book, The Tarbo Bestter Story, both Bter and Nendeepa tried to stop its publication, claiming that they hadn't approved of its contents. Obviously, their attempts didn't work, and if you want to piss them off even more, why not buy it on Amazon umber five. Despite numerous requests, neither Netflix nor the local streaming service ShowMax has agreed to do a show on Taro's prison escape yet. But according to ShowMax's CEO, filmmakers are more than welcome to submit. es The escape is very movie like six According to the Department of Home Affairs, there are actually three Tarbo Bests still alive. One had immigrated to the US years ago, but was still pestered by internet idiots who want to know if he was the Tarbo Besta. The other Tarbo grew up not far from the infamous Bestter and when news broke that there was a warrant out for his arrest, Tarbo showed up at his local police station and told the police was the drawy that they were looking for And that's where we end today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope you enjoyed it. Why not leave the sure review on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts? u Yeah, that's it. I'll see you next time Q Fest Carnival comes to Lawcesville, at the Quicker Bridge Mall, july fifteenth through the nineteenth. Don't miss exciting rides. Stroll the midway, try your luck at Carnival games, and feast on awesome cararnival fare. Proceeds Benefit Lead, a national nonprofit organization serving local law enforcement and educating students about the dangers of drugs and violence. For carnival hours, tickets, and special offers, visit the leadfest dot com dot That's the leadfest dot comot brring the whole family for unforgettable family fun. The Leadfest Carnival at Quicker Bridge Mall on route one in Lawrenceville