The Dinnis Case and Unsolved Murders

This episode contains graphic descriptions of murder and violence. and might not be suitable for all leners. Kuse, a small town in eastern South Africa holds a bustling market every day I'm here in march twenty twenty six On my second trip to the town since the start of the year Shoppers browse stalls piled with vegetables, gadgets, secondhand clothes. Chicken is being grilled on a barbecue. Traders banter with each other as customers pick over their wares. So can you just tell me what you're selling and what it's used for But one row of stalls is selling something Quite different You can see phones. Which phones are these from animals? Yeah Tiger T Tiger. Where'd you get tiger bones from The range of stock is macabre. Between the rows of tree bark and herbs, there are claws and beaks of birds, snake skins and bones of all sizes Each one, the Hawkers tell me, hold different medicinal powers as identified by a Sangorma or traditional healer Anyone who consumes them as remedies will feel the benefit. Some might offer a cure for an ailment Others bring luck, strength or wealth And do you have sangomas in Luine? Yes. M. Many, many M so Most of the locals in Makusee would trust a Sangoma over a GP. If you have a problem, come to me and go in Sangoma and tell anything about you Yeah. What kind of problems do they solve? Many problem. If we come to go in Sangoma and tell anything about you And you'll have a cure for it But on the fringes of traditional medicine in South Africa, some healers don't restrict themselves to herbs and animal parts To have the most potent effect, some will tell their clients, they need ingredients for a potion that are much stronger more sinister It is this dark traditional medicine, I'm told. could help me understand more about the disappearance of Laorna McSaley Just down the road from this market in Makuusee, in september twenty twenty five, the seventy one year old British tourist set off for a walk through the sugar canane fields beneath Ghost Mountain. Vanished. that of trace. Nobody knows where she is. A week long search involving planes, dogs, drones and scores of volunteers found no sign of lawning We can't believe of today's technology, we can't find it We can put the voices in cars, we can go to Mars We can do anything But we can't find Lona But there are local suspicions about what might have happened to Lorna. things that at first Couldn't believe They are very afraid of this tour doctors. you know, this witchcraft And they told me about four, five days after. If you haven't found something by now Never find that as I started digging I heard of a pattern of other cases around Musee which might hold the answer People got missing, peopleeople go into a place and they were return. small girls got abducted Little boys got abducted. Nothing was done about that cases I'm Jane Flanagan and from the Times and Sunday Times, this is Ghost Mountain Episode two. Strong medicine In early october twenty twenty five, South African police formally ended the active search for Lora Mcsawley A week long hunt, including drones, boats and dogs scouring miles of farms and waterways Turned up nothing Apart from the maps she'd been carrying found crumpled at the side of a track It was now a missing persons case something that rarely gets solved. in this part of South Africa But some locals like Francoisell, who head security on the farm where she disappeared continued to hunt for Lorna And he had his own theory about what had happened. When we didn't find her And we all came to the conclusion, okay, we think she's been abducted When we said enough is enough. we're not going to allow it We knew this thing is not going to go anywhere Be of previous cases where people got missing It went up in the dustper. That's why I said I will take this thing personally and find out where she is because We must understand if we didn't do it as a private sector Jon's case will be wr in officer inquiry as a missing person tourist and it will stay like that forever South Africa has a notoriously high rate of violent crime. Murders, kidnappings, and robberies arife There are fifty odd kidnappings a day across the country, according to police figures Only a tiny fraction of those result in arrests and prosecutions Francois took matters into his own hands Rather than rely on a police force few locals had much faith in He raised funds from local businesses to hire a private investigator Together, they set out to establish Who else had been in the area when Lorna disappeared We had a map We had a mck area and no clue So for, let me go to that area And let's do a dughter dom Data dump datated dump as we pronounce it in the UK Francois means the phone tracking technology, often used by police in investigations Every mobile device with a signal. communicates with local phone towers logging its location data. data stored by the network and can be retrieved by investigators even if the phone itself is never found. Lora was not carrying a phone when she went missing The data dump could reveal what other phones were in the same area around that time What we did is we estimated the timeline. We said from let's say free to Fife This was the period after Lorna was last seen, but before she was reported missing They scoured the data for other phones in the area Cose to where Lora's map was found There was activities in that area in the radius of fifty meters, where a map was found that four numbers was there Four devices Potentially four people. One of them, at the very least, must have been there when Lora went missing. What is four numbers? doing on that position where the map has been found Those people had no reason to be there It form was closed There was nobody here. So what do they want you When we got the numbers, we did a history on that numbers now. So we want to see where they went to and where they come from. Once Francois had identified movement in the area where Lora was last seen, he extended the search area and timeline to see where those devices had come from For him, the pattern pointed to one conclusion ion The phones arrive from outside the farm converge close to the spot where her map was found then leave Be of that, I said This lady is not here anymore. She's been abducted. Let's start doing an investigation But then the funds, the funds in that so that's just why we couldn't And everything over to the South African police Once the community fund had run dry to continue the private investigation Francois had little choice, but to give his findings to a police force he had no confidence would finish the job But so many questions still remained. If Lorna had been abducted Then for what In South Africa, kidnappings are for financial gain Relatives or a business will typically receive a ransom demand from the captors. Sometimes victims are taken with their bank cards and forced to withdraw money from ATMs or buy goods until their accounts are drained But that had not happened in Lorna's case She had money, she had a credit card, she had shared Everything on And when a credit card didn't have any movements on. That is when we decided Just people didn't need money It I not of the money. That is why. I said I think The value was in her, not in the good share. That is why we came to the conclusion she was being useful Moody because The value in her body is much more worth in a created card Francois is making what sounds like an extraordinary claim. Mooti is the Zulu word for medicine, the traditional remedies of the type that I saw for sale in the local market Moti is mostly benign, made from plants or roots. But there is a malevolent kind tiny minority of sang Gormas or healers prepared to use human body parts for what they claim are the most powerful ceremonies and remedies Francois was adamant that the only explanation for Lorna vanishing was this kind of dark moty The suspicious movement of devices did point to an abduction. But for her body parts. It was a grotesque explanation But I'm not from here to keep an open mind I needed to find out more about Moti and how it is used in this area. If there is death in your family, In Zunu Cultta You knit? to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead peasant You will then have to kill and anymud A goat for instance Jacob Sabello Nchagase is an expert in the Zulu language and culture. He's from a town called Pongola, about a forty minute drive north. Ghost Mountain Jacob is explaining to me how Muty is used and revered here in the Zulu Heartland And then they will take the inside of a coat They will mix it with particular roots, certain roots and leaves for you to be cleansed of the spirit of that dead pule That's the moti, which is I think it would be a light moti Moti comes in different forms. It's typically mixed from certain plants or animal parts Its uses can be ceremonial or as cures for headaches, upset stomachs or even emotional pain And alsoan people believe that Maybe there is a woman that I love And the woman doesn't love me. becausecause the woman is in love with somebody else. And Yang I would say to you, okay I am going to mix morti for you that you must go maybe path in And then maybe have particular roots that when you go to speak to the woman You must true it as you speak to that particular woman And the old woman would fall in love with you imagine that stupid thing That's moody I've lived in South Africa for two decades, so I'm aware Muty is part of the culture here. but nearly two thousand kilometers from my home in Cape Town. in the rural communities around Muusee. It seems the use and talk of Moty. dominates What to in Nalia? is dominated by The Zulus, people who are very proud of their culture believes like Mutin and stuff like that is very strong amongst them, especially dominantly rural ones. For instance, If you go to places like the Cs in those areas Traditional Hillas. are the first call there for help. But yes, there are some people, certain sections of the population we have headache they will say You say, I've been to the doctor. I, you arere wasting your money. Go to your doctor. There is traditional Hila and so. whoo can cure this s chronic headache and stuff like that? Let like example with myself, for instance, I have a twenty two year old Boy My son is autistic born with autism There are certain meembers of my family And some people in the community who are saying takeake this child traditional hillas They will cure this thing. So people who strongly believe they pushing These days, the trade in Mouti has flourished so much that many healers have become wealthy businessmen, But Jacob, the Zulu cultural expert, confirms what Francois told me. There's another appalling side to this tradition Then there's moti that have to do with mixing the body parts. Private parts You find someone who has disappeared for years. The bodyies found and some bushes thrown away and then body parts are missing Traditional healers, you know, they would sell that belief that if you get these body parts, it will make you stronger, you know it will make you rich and all those kind of things. For the most potent concoctions, a moty killing is required in which organs and body parts are harvested from a living victim In a ritual that ideally takes place beside a water source such body parts are believed to be imbued with special powers far beyond anything available from plants or animals. Some claim human muty can make you invincible. ese m hass to make them stronger. They are not their powers extraordinary powers, actually. because of moty. That's why other people, for instance, even when you take out the gun, you want to shoot them because they feel that they are multip protected and those m have to do m with body parts, they'll say, goo ahead, shoot, goo ahead shoot because the belief is that You know, bullets weren't killed. There are people who strongly believe in that People sell their cows They will sellood yeah for so that they can get that mood because such that that m is not cheap is very expensive You know, m to that would do with body parts. I've spoken to traditional healers who insist that this is a very rare phenomenon But Jacob suggests the belief in this type of strong my is entrenched in the area where Lorna disappeared So I know in that part of the world in Northern Zululland, especially around cause issues of multi killing trrading in body parts, it's actually veryer, very, very strong there is a strong belief in that. So Yes, I always been problem. For instance not very far from my hometown It used to be the body parts that was used More common at the time was the head You willll find people beheaded So I remember my grandwother would question us night, be careful. peopleople are looking for your heads And these hs they use them for moty For me it is a plausible explanation that the disappearance of people has to do with trading in body parts based on a belief that certain people, for instance, like people with alpinism and white people that the body parts can be used for moody to make one powerful or rich Some traditional healers claim that muti or Chms taken from people with albinism can bring wealth for good fortune An entire body can reportedly be worth thousands of pounds Laora Mcsaley was, of course, a white woman In her seventies, she was lost and without water, alone in the bush. After the break, I follow the trail of other disappearances around the Cusee and the pieces start falling into place. It blows my mind given what we found, what they admitted to the information that they knew. That's in just a moment Walking in the shadow of Ghost Mountain is easy to get lost The sugar cane closes in around you. The fields are vast and dense, visibility down to a few meters in any direction. When I visited in January, the heat and humidity were draining. The crops and ditches along the route Lorna took would have been easy places to hide or to watch and wait. Where do you think they were watching her from? I think they were maybe at the back Francois Nell is the man who traced the phones entering and leaving this area at the time when Lorna disappeared. He thinks it paints a clear picture. Lorna was abducted He wants to show me how he thinks that abduction played out, where those who took her might have been hiding while Lora was asking for directions from Cus Prince Lu, the local farmer who had the last confirmed sighting of her. They were at the back your sight. And maybe when she was talking to Quis, they regroup and they were hanging back. No vehicles, just a sporter. This is my futy She came down here. She saw them here and she thought everybody's friendly. Oh, good guy. I'm lost. you said He for twouck. I know how they were. come And they tooick a map surging the grass. And then they kept here Maybe they went into the bushfer Pone the transport They can pick it up here. Oh Francois is convinced that Lorna was a victim of a mooty killing. He tells me that these crimes require a group working together. A Sangorma will be looking for strong moty for a wealthy client who wants to become rich, or powerful, maybe. He then puts out an order to his network of scouts for the body part necessary for the ritual. His contacts will identify a victim and kill them in a special ceremony near a water source That is exactly what happened to her. Somebody knew she went out of that hotel What we know there's a list, there's a market f for, let's say white women What they do is they wait for a lifetime, Mbe you will walk here. You could have be the first one today, maybe, example. Walking here, taking pictures. Hey, they would start talking to each other. We saw a white lady going out of the gate of Goast Mountain or wherever. She's walking alone. Come. They have a market for everybody There's a market for you right now as you sit here. They're just waiting for the right time to take you I almost always travel alone on my reporting trips across South Africa and other countries. Francois shakes his head at the idea that I've come to Mcuse on my own. And over the years when you've lived here, how many people have been disappeared and thought to have been trafficked into the muti industry According to sources, we have nine alleged bodies I foundil through the years. with of multi murers, hands been removed, private parts been cut off, ears and that case has never surfaced. justust went to the darks side To find out whether the Mouty theory being linked to Lorna's case had any substance I wanted to track down some of the families of those victims. I did not have to look far With the family of Cambola, we have one person who went missing. That was our grandfather Wh went missing on twenty twenty four Fary This is Sneelisa Kilele andkombule She lives with her mother and sister on the lower slopes of Ghost Mountain a couple of hours walk from Mcuusee. A community leader who heard I was looking into disappearances in the area brought me to meet her She told me her grandfather, who was in his sixties vanished overnight from the family compound In february, twenty twenty four His remains were found miles away F months later We said for him, police help help us to to look for him. But you couldn't find him until it was July She points down the hill to the hut he was taken from By Moty hunters, she tells me We found the remainings There were not ms, we got a skull and one bone which we don't know which part of it was. What do you think happened to him I think my grandfather was kidnapped and killed and they took Some of his body parts That's what I do. to usually meet me by the gate when I bring the food for her. but that day when I came by day later I did not see her This is in Clar Canipo Mieni He's a twenty seven year old student who lives about three miles from where the young girl's grandfather was taken. He's telling me about what happened to his aunt and showing me around the homestead where she lived So I started to look around and window around the house And I saw a jacket by the fence and I found She was late Down buton covered with the wood you used to cook it and the em metal sheet That's how I found him It says you found a body, but it was covered in wood and a corrugated iron sheet like someone was roing the body. Yes. when the police came and looked at the party, they had found that the arm was missing The missing arm might have been used as a means of f trillism So you think your aunt was killed was a moody killing victim. I was also given the phone number of a mother whose child was taken In a brief call, she refused to say what happened. I'm afraid of these people, she told me, and hung up We are also scared for our lives because now we are not able to go out at night because You never know when you're going to be go missing yourself I also heard a real frustration about the lack of police action communityated enough, maybe we could get some justice or maybe protection I don't know but police in the maybe the government maybe could Take us serious and take these people's lives serious Be we are losing here Without proper police investigations, the suggestions that these are all muty murders remains speculation There's nothing that proves that these are victims who have been killed to order Then I was reminded of a story I'd seen reported in the South African media a few years back. It's a case that was able to go much further in making a link between a disappearance and Muty British citizens who had been living in Kwazulin Natal province for decades. before they vanished into thin air So I was in Cape Town. I was at home and it was a Sunday afternoon and I received a phone call from my daughter who lives up in Moy Rriver. And she said to me, I don't mean to worry you, but I think Granny and grandad have gone missing Kate Andrews is British But she's been living in South Africa for decades parents, Anthony and Jillian Dinnis were retired farmers in their seventies and originally from Kent They had moved in the early nineties to farm in M River. a few hundred miles from Makuusee It was a remote place, but they loved it. After giving up their large farm, they kept a few livestock and tended to their vegetable patch. until one morning in august twenty twenty three, when Kate who lives on the other side of South Africa near Cape Town received that call from her own daughter to say they had disappeared So she said to me, the next move was they were going to go to the house and break into the house to see what is going on When Kate's daughter arrived, she was met with an eerie scene My daughter said to me, it was like aliens had just come and just taken them And I said to her that, you can't What do you mean? Surely there's something And she said, no There's nothing plates were still there The glasses of Aros were still there with some of it had some Aos still in it Soviets were still there. I could see what meal they'd eaten and like the leftover vegetables were still in the pot on the stove It was exactly as if they'd been there one minute and not there the next was So surreal. It was this detail of their sudden disappearance that sounded so much like the case of Lorna McSawley police did a full search of obviously of the property They bought out search and rescue the dogs, they search dems, they search farm buildings, they went all over and there was absolutely no indication whatsoever. My parents then we said, Well, my parents were taken off of the property. We assumed it would take more than one person becausecause they would fight back no matter what There was nothing for a week. Until the family received a WhatsApp from Jillian Dinnis' phone number demanding two million rnds. which is about ninety thousand pounds So we were corresponding on WhatsApp in Zulu while using Google Translate and trying to get some sort of proof of life. which they never gave Back at her parents's farmhouse, Kate spotted a note in her father's diary, which might offer a clue to who had taken them Each of Tony Dinnis's diary entries meticulously detailed their daily life what they had eaten Tom who they had seen And a couple of days before he and Jillian were reported missing Tony recorded a particular visit On the Friday The gardener had been there He would mention this gardener by name. I said to the police, Okay, listen, these are the last people that saw my parents There's a gardener here. this is his name. You need to talk to him. He was the last person there that saw them Police dithered But after two weeks, they did find the gardener and took him in for questioning And then soon after a second man, also work for the old couple in custody Two men made an extraordinary confession It was a very short confession to say that he had been a party to taking my parents they had been murdered and that their fingers and their ears had been removed for a sang Gorma that they were promised fifty thousand rarand for the body parts and that they had not been paid. did not go into detail as to whether they rememove the body parts while my parents were alive or dead What I do know from my own research that Um Under normal, I say normal circumstances, nothing about this is normal In the circumstances of taking body parts for a moodi, tradition dictates that the person must still be alive and it should be done near running water That is what I read on the confonfession They said the ransom demand was sent after the Sangoma, the traditional healer who had taken the muti fail to pay them Their confession was accepted by the police In fact, Kate says no police officer had ever disputed it That did not mean that justice was served The pair were arrested, charged and appeared in court. But the charges were later withdrawn The police spokesman saying it was due to insufficient evidence. There was no trial, there was no prosecution. they' just in the area where where your parents were living Yes, one lives fairly close to where my parents lived U the other one I'm not sure where he stays blows my mind given what we found, what they admitted to The information that they knew, for example One of the suspects said he told the police where they left my father's wallet and that was exactly where they left the wallnet You wouldn't know that if you weren't part of this I've spoken to the police and I am just being given the runaround Nothing has been done for over a year. Nobody is looking for them, nobody is attempting to look for them. it's just It's just very, very distressing and very upsetting not only to my family and I, but to the other people in the area as well because my parents were well liked. And we have not even recovered their remains. We cannot even give them a decent burial We We are left in limbo and it's a horrible place to be I do know that those last moments, even as they left their house would have been absolute terror and that they would have to recognize the fact that they weren't getting out of this And I just imagine that their last words were telling each other they love each other. During one of my research trips to Kuazula Natal for this series, I traveled to the remote spot where the Dinises had lived I wanted to see if I could get some more information about why the case fell down An officer agreed to see me but later changed his mind. I'd reached a dead end Sitting in my H near where they disappeared I reread the media reports of their self confessed killers' court appearances before they were released back into this area I now really wanted to go home. I'd always heard that moty killings were extremely rare maybe a handful a year The confonfessions describe the trade in human body parts Chilling Matter of factness Bodies could be stolen rather like a car or an animal Cut up and sold and some parts fetching more than others The rumours in Mcuseay that Laora McSwley had been taken by Mooty hunters no longer seem so far fetched that was the case She would be the third British person in just two years. to have suffered that fate in this province of South Africa And digging further, I've been able to find evidence that Lorna was likely to have been tracked from early on in her walk. And I might be able to understand why the police are doing nothing I think there's a general belief that it would be far off in a rural place, but from my experience and the bit of exposure that I've had to muti killings, it is widely spread across South Africa. They aref A're afraid the motie? Yeah And they're afraid that maybe those culprits will kill them That's next time. Times and Sunday Tes. This is Ghost Mountain a series for the story I'm your host, Jane Flanagan The Producer is Harry Sott The executive producers are Taren Sagull and Kate Lambll Sound design and composition is by Mal Lassetto We'll be back tomorrow with episode three Ghost Mountain