Seeking Justice and Final Reflections

This episode contains graphic descriptions of murder and violence and might not be suitable for all listeners South African Church services are a lively affair People dance and sing as much as they pray for peace and redemption This Raucer ceremony is taking place in March this year at a church in Maccusee toown in easastern South Africa But this is not a standard Sunday service. In fact, normal services across the district have been cancellled This is a special ceremony to cleanse the town of evil spirits. . What What do? Others stand outside the church with Boovuzllas and drums in a musical ritual Because Nczi is where in september twenty twenty five, the British tourist Lorna McSawley vanished on a walk near Ghost Mountain At least nine locals have also gone missing in recent years Somebody's turning up mutilated In fact, two cases have been reported since Lorna went missing It's created an atmosphere of fear and superstition. hanging over the community We are also scared for our lives because now we are not able to go out at night. You never know when you're gonna be go missing on yourself. As I've investigated Laorna's disappearance, I've come to understand it's not spirits or witchcraft that are responsible. but likely a real trade in human body parts. sold to be used as a form of dark moty. or traditional medicine The market they created for body parts There's a market every day for you They just very care for what they do To date, no one has been held to account Families have been left bereft, with no remains to bury frustrated by police inaction pololice and the maybe the government maybe could take a serious maybe Get some justice In this final episode of our series, I'm trying to fill in the gaps the police missed to uncover what really happened to Lora McSawley And maybe even who was responsible. From the Times and Sunday Times I'm Jane Flanagan This is Ghost Mountain Episode three the network In the months after Lora Mcsawley went missing, the trail went completely cold The last known sighting was by a farmer on the route. You could see she's heart because she was walking, you know But she wasn't stressed. There was no nothing in her voice that says say I've got a problem A crumpled map was found on the track When we found the map, it was like, okay. And then we knew she had to be here So that was actually the best lead we had on that stage That was all the hard evidence they found Until Francoisneell, the head of security on the farm where Lorna disappeared managed to uncover the most interesting evidence we've seen so far using a process known as a data dump He found four phones that had all been in the area right after Lorna was last seen. That's where I wanted to start. If we could work out who those phones belong to build a clearer picture of what happened We might be able to fill in some of the gaps that Francois had been unable to explain And to do that I had to leave rural Makuusee and travel north some three hundred miles to the South African capital. az look on the which you seew Pretoria is a far cry from the roolling hills around Makuse. It's the executive capital, a mishmash of old colonial era houses, modern office blocks and the informal shacks that you'll find in every South African city It's rather dull, but it is the bureaucratic hub and where you'll find the top intelligence operations in the country. My name's Santy Doga. I'm the Oer and I'm your CEO of the company called Topic Groups What we do is predictive intelligence and investigative sport Topic Works is based at a highly secure building. This conference room has floor to ceiling screens that stream live data from countries where Santy's clients need intelligence. The screens blink with social media trends. prrotest activity, fuel shortages and shifts in public mood meeasuring the threats of possible unrest Santy's blonde hair is neatly cropped She tells me she began her career in military intelligence Her company is the only intelligence and risk analysis firm of its kind in the country It's lawful and licensed by South African authorities But Santy has asked us not to publish the specifics of how it all works.on disclose too much, but boils down to our research with the assistance of satellite has enabled us to do movement analysis. on what happened on the day and days leading towards the day of the incident. I gave Santi the GPS location of where Lora's map had been found and the times when she was last seen and reported missing The team of analysts were able to plot out a map and timeline of unusual and potentially suspicious activity. in the area becausecause it's such a rural and secluded area and it's not in the middle of the Ged up city It was quite easy because there's not a lot of movements supposed to be in an area and that assisted us a lot in identifying people What the analysis reveals is striking workorks map the area retrospectively, reviewing patterns of movement around Ghost Mountain Inn and the farm where Lora disappeared in the weeks before and after The aim was to identify what was routine activity And what was not On september twenty seventh the day Lorna checked in. Topic Works identified two individuals with no obvious connection to the property who had been lingering there for a couple of hours. They would have been in a position to observe Lorna and her partner Leon, set off on their walk a walk from which Leon soon returned Laving Lorna to continue alone We can then see two other figures hanging about further along the route whose movements stood out It was Saturday afternoon on private farmland with workers all off For the weekend And yet one of the figures was standing in the sugar canane fields along the walking route They would have been able to see Leon turn back An hour later, when Lorna stopped at a farmhouse to ask for directions The other figure could be seen very close to where her map was later found discarded Then in the dead of night, the two individuals who had been loitering near the hotel are tracked to a remote property. six miles north of Ghost Mountain Inn on the road towards the Esuwatini border property that is close to a large body of water. as we've already heard Water is said to play a role in my killings The Topic Works report goes further still ending with the cross reference of social media. and to botholfs of the local community that led us to A acccurate, I would say possibility that This could be linked to moty murders While Topic workors carried out their own tracking, I gave them the phone numbers which Francois found in his data dump Their technology was able to link those to various social media accounts showing us who some of those devices likely belong to The most interesting account showed a man in what looks like a traditional moty shop shelves stacked with potions On the shop wall is a flag of Esperertini The Tiny Kingdom is short drive from Mkusee Another photo shows bundles of cash. Put his number into my phone. He's active on WhatsApp and his profile picture shows a hierarchy of the big cats It makes me think of the tiger bones I'd seen for sale at the Mooty stalls in Mcuusee We have handed these details to the South African police and so cannot name the individuals But taking together the reports from topopic Works in Francois seemed to point to a coordinated abduction where multiple people saw that Lorna was alone among the sugar cane There was an order out for a white victim You think there's some very solid leads that the police couldeinitely and They sufficient technology and that supports what we've put into the report. And that could definitely lead to a more directed invvestigation from the police' side. you end up at the end of the day with quite accurate and directed information that you need to follow next level is where you actually have to have boots on the ground to follow out the in nomation Other than the huge search during the first week after Lorna went missing boots on the ground have not materialized. Francois did hand the police the results of his data dump two weeks after Lorna disappeared I've seen correspondence confirming it was received Yet detectives working on the case later claimed they knew nothing about the phone evidence The South African police confirmed to us that Lorna is still being treated as a missing pers's case. Tim is running out. to get any usable evidence. Forensic evidence is unlike wine in this respect. It doesn't improve with age So The moment you get a person of interest, you should get yourself there and talk to them ASAP. David Clatzso is a South African forensic scientist who has worked on a huge number of murder cases during a forty year career I showed him the report put together by Topic Works And he was surprised that the police had not done their own report of this kind Those satellite downloads would indicate a number of people easily identifiable by the police with the available technology And that should have been immediately put into place. And the moment that happened You could have tracked down those particular devices which allowed identification of the individuals and put into place more conventional forensic investigation Eight months after she disappeared, it's still as a missing personss case Would you agree with that No, it should by now be a murder case David also suggests it could be linked to Muty I think it's a very likely explanation I would default to that Once nobodyody turned up, once no credit card had been used, and once there was absolutely no sign whatsoever of this unfortunate woman I would certainly put that on my list of things to investigate The family and friends of Lora McSwley have obviously littleittle hope now that she might be found alive and the next best thing would be to find some remains if you were the investigator on this case, what would you be doing to try and make that happen? feet on the ground. is the important thing to do. You'd have people tracking down these individuals that were identified as being in the area, finding out what they've done You can get access to their bank accounts, you can get access to the kind of medications that they are preparing and selling I would send in undercover agents to find out They're what I could purchase and I mean, it could be very interesting if you send someone in I need particularly strong moty when the sweepstakes or two When this court case that I've involved in, doing absolutely nothing is the very worst thing that you can do I mean, that sounds so obvious, but unfortunately, that's what our police are doing, doing nothing I hope it'll go away So why are the police doing so little At the same time, in Makuse, the town under Ghost Mountain, there is a climate of fear. donon't give the full information about those cases Be they're afraid. They're afraid of the muty? Yeah. And they're afraid that maybe those culprits will kill them and maybe something else. And this would range from politicians that believe that they need some kind of a muti ritual to perform a certain task or be elected. And it would range from them to criminals. That's after the Break We have handed the Topic Works report to the South African police. But in Makusee, with the nine or more disappearances that have gone cold, the local community has little hope that any investigation will come to anything I did speak to the police about the cases off the record, but none would go on tape for this series. One person who work was Bongani Matendwa, the chair of the community pololice Forum, the liaison between Mcuzi's residents and the local police We met outside his house, a steep walk up the slope of Ghost Mountain. I wasn't confident my hire car would make it He has been trying to impress upon the police just how terrified the people of Makusee have become. We' that wored. We are that worried. and we are living in fear now. You can't just leave your home unattendant like maybe your kids or your wife. And the only challenge we're facing is the fact that we don't know the culprit who's doing that So we're under closure. As the representative of your community, are you under a lot of pressure to get to the bottom of this? So much, ma'am, so much pressure Met of Pure Is there a lot of trust in the police in your community? Since we arere in partnership with them, I can say yes, but community members are complaining about police. There are cases that were opened. police are not giving feedback to the government about those cases. Bongani has held multiple meetings with the police to try and get some action, but it's so far yielded little And he tells me that the number of suspected Moty Link disappearances might in fact be far more than the police are aware of Commee members are afraid to report cases now. So you think there are some cases linked to Muti that people don't even report? not reporting P the, but they don't give the full information about those cases because they they're afraid. They're afraid of the mutine? Yeah. And they're afraid that maybe those culprits will kill them. It's not just the Makue residents who are terrified of Muti During my days of asking questions around the town, I had become a recognizable figure A senior local official requested a meeting with me after hours He did not want to be recorded But he did say he wanted me to know that he was personally aware of at least a dozen disappearances in the area since the pandemic. The biggest danger we know Makuzi is this moti. We are all scared of it, he said As we chatted, what struck me was that this official very much believed in its power When I told him I was puzzled by Lora McSawley's decision to walk alone in the bush on the day she disappeared He offered an explanation She told me she was likely under a spell that had been cast to make the Mouty Hunter's job easier Seeing my eyes widen in surprise, he said They can make people do things that are out of character. If an educated official was prepared to believe the supernatural had a hand in Lorna's disappearance then it was perhaps no surprise that the case had stalled But while fear of Moty might contribute to a lack of progress by police Some suggest a far earthier explanation. Like Francoisell, the man who head security for the largest farm in Macuseay and led the volunteer hunt when Laorna Mcsawley went missing Why do you think The authorities there on this these cases investigated I don't think they do it on purpose. I think it's more a lack. fififty percent of it will be on purpose. the other fifty will be a lack of interest Corruption is a major problem in South Africa, and perhaps nowhere more so than in KQasulun Nal The large province which includes Makcuusee. The province has been at the center of a string of policing scandals There's currently a Commission of inquiry looking into links between organised crime gangs, police officers, politicians and the courts. More than a dozen officials, including police ministers and commissioners have been implicated, many of them from Kazulunatoll. Franco has also told me about the gangs operating around Macusee coaching networks, his teams confront every day protecting farm equipment and wildlife The area's rhino population has been decimated by the illegal trade in Horn Is there a crossover with the Muti trade Yeah, definitely, definitely. Rhino poaching is just one of the poaching problems we have. Birds Catch. fate is being cut Monkeys's hands been chopped off Pythons, African rock pythons can caat in traps, be skkeinned and they sell the skins Where does it go to? to the Moty M Js not far from here, about eighty kays from here, it's a place called Nonggoma There's a market twice the size of a raid food. You can't even go there as a white man course It's a market where they come together and sell leopard skins, hippo skins, elephant skins. you name it. That is how big it is So it's not a small industry In this area, the poaching industry is the moty industry Remember, most muty is taken from plants, trees or animals and the same networks of people who might be sent into the bush find a snake skin. K a rhino for its horn would be well placed to find a human body part to be used in strong moti The market they created for body parts There's a market everyday for you Theyre just very careful what they do because I don't want to draw attention to it. Francois and his team have long questioned whether these well armed and organized gangs have been able to leverage influence over local officials. The South African police told us that they would urge any witnesses to such actions to open a case against suspected police officers at any police station fear of the supernatural and links between the moty trade and organized crime weren't enough to stop the police from taking these investigations further There is also the question of who is buying this strong moti because it doesn't come cheap I think there's a general belief that it would be far off in a rural place where cultural rituals or so called cultural rituals would be the orer of the day. But from my experience and the bit of exposure that I've had to muti killings, it is widely spread across South Africa Ian Cameron is an opposition MP and the chairperson of the Police Portfolio Committee in South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town He is not an easy man to get time with, but he agrees to meet me at a coffee shop between his appointments Before he went into politics, Ian spent years working with victims of violent crime couldouldn't afford legal help He knows how organized criminal syndicates operate in South Africa. and has been involved in several cases of muty killings. and witness some terrible scenes In one of the cases that I had some contact with quite a few years ago, there was a small boy whose nose was cut off for supposed use in such a killing and There were several others, I think of the case of littleittle Boabul Po, which to this day I believe may have been such a kind of killing because up until today they haven't found all of her body parts. He explains that the customers who are buying this strong mouty and ultimately fueling this trade are not from the rural areas where the victims are easy to pick off clients often come from the big cities. where there's the money to pay for it So who are the sort of people who would needs the mot the strong muty involving body parts these hardened criminals or these politicians, Who would be the clients? So I think it's all of the above. Obviously, first of all, you need to go find people that believe in it. That's the first part. And this would range from politicians that believe that they need some kind of a muti ritual to perform a certain task or be elected to gain some kind of wealth and it would range from them to criminals. I can say from practical experience that Not too long ago, I was in a crime scene where a whole group, an entire gang, had been shot and killed by the police. They tried to shoot their way out from arrest and they engaged the South African police service. They were then all subsequently killed But the interesting part of it was that they had just finished performing some kind of muti ritual and some of them had returned from meeting with the said Sanoma or witch doctor from where they would then have prepared themselves to go and do a cash in transit heist In preparation before committing their heist, this criminal group had sourced Stong Mouti and performed a ritual to give them power Getting attention to tackle these crimes is very difficult. Muti killings are rarely spoken about publicly at a high level Ian believes the political class could be doing more. and that there's a reason they don't want to do that Remember, MTi is the Zulu word for medicine It's largely benign involving traditional therapies ever present in many ethnic groups in South Africa even in the highest offices of power The authorities wouldn't necessarily want this to be really receiving too much public attention or scrutiny because it might reflect badly on them. In March this year, senior figures in the African National Congress, the party Nelson Mandela led to power after apartheid, and has governed South Africa ever since pushed for their headquarters to be spiritually cleansed using Muti A cleansing ceremony like this would have involved herbs or tree bark, not body parts But it speaks to a political culture where these traditions are hugely influential And that presents some worrying questions about the political appetite. to take on the dark muty practices which are terrorising poor communities I think politically they are some parties and individuals that represent parties that are scared of being exposed or not exposed, but that they would alienate people and actually lose support if they are too outspoken about such practices, it may actually form part of the particular constituencies and therefore they arere very careful of speaking out So what do you think can be done to curb it? So I think it's something that certainly can be done by the South African Police Service. The encouraging part to me is that many cultural leaders have previously come out to say, but that is not really what we believe. In terms of using human body parts, it is not the practical reality of our cultural beliefs. And I think those initiatives need to be supported that you can communicate and influence communities to not be drawn into these types of practices I've spoken to leaders within the Traditional Healers Association of South Africa who echo Ian's comments and depllore the use of strong Mooty and the negative impact on the reputation of their practices They insist it's not a legitimate form of traditional healing Given the Moty tradees's apparent links to organized crime and the lack of political will that Ian describes This is a problem that needs more than words. It needs action And in Laora McSawley's case, That may finally be happening Past the Topic Works report to Ian Cameron, who tells me the national force, not just investigators in Kazulun Natal, is now looking into her disappearance I also recently heard from Lora's brother Jeff that he has been asked by the National Force to provide a DNA sample in case they find some evidence. or Lwners's remains As we were putting the final touches to this series, Francois told me that the police had belatedly obtained a subpoena that compels the phone companies to share records on the numbers that his data dump had put at the scene He hopes that those leads will now finally be used There does seem to be some new energy in the investigation. I hope it will bring some closure or even arrests Beyond the search for justice, Lorna's disappearance and the other locals before her and since have left the community in Makusee. forever changed Cus Princelu, the farmer who had the last confirmed sighting of her who offered her a lift back to the hotel an offer she turned down tells me he replays that moment. over and over again. When I'm alone, Iaking genine alone And it's just me and myself And I think about it, it's like even now, I don't know if you see it. I want to try it. Today's bad. What if it was my mother in law What if it was my mom? What if it's my wife Sureio I'm not a guy that used to I have a voice like this just said I shouldn't know for her takeake a no for our answer. I should have kept on asking or telling her, I'm gonna take you How do you feel Duilty She's gone. Wou a trace Nobody knew where she is. what happened Who's going to do something about it Who's gonna to help those families Chis tells me his family has lost their sense of freedom since Lorna vanished But the wider community in Makusee hopes this could be a turning point. a moment when these disappearances and mutilated bodies are finally taken more seriously But for now, those responsible remain at large and locals fear are likely living among them Lack in the UK, thousands of miles from Ghost Mountain and local tales of spirits and abductions Jeff Suart Lora's brother is still trying to come to terms with her likely fate Heos Stum failed I didn't think anything like that existed. let alone in this count in this century. It was an o my go moment. to think that Y sister has gone through that and How she was fairly night home She must have been terrified And It's not just Lora, it's all the other people, you know, black or white I understand it doesn't really matter. I know it's just human What would you like to see happen I hope they find some semblance of ain Some remains of first so we can lay it to rest somewhere, you know. That would be an end of it for me, you know, then I can probably grieve properly but at the moment I just can't, as I said Investigating Laorna McSawley's disappearance has become an unsettling journey through the contradictions of this beautiful and deeply unequal country I keep thinking about something that Taru Bebecki, a former South African president, said nearly thirty years ago Challenging the idea of a more equal post apartheid rainbow nation, he said there were really two South Africas a large, poor black one and a smaller one that was rich and mostly white Pessimism has largely been born out I live in the smaller comfortable South Africa that Tabu and Becky described, but spend much of my working life in the bigger, poorer version. The area around Ghost Mountain is typical of it few foreign tourists ever venture there Lorna Mcsawley did. Her disappearance has been a reminder that beyond the exquisite landscapes lies a very different South Africa that most visitors never see but that millions of people have to navigate every day. From the Times and Sunday Times, this is Ghost Mountain, a series for the story I'm your host, Jane Flanigan prodroducer is Harry Stott The executive producers are Taren Siegel and Kate Lambble Sound design and composition is by Mao Lassetto If you have any questions about this series, do get in touch with us at the story atthtimes. com Our normal program will return tomorrow