Staff Reporter
Free State police have launched another double inquest after a couple drowned during a fight that had seen the man allegedly attempting to kill his entire family by driving his wife and two children into a river.
The incident happened late Friday afternoon in Kroonstad.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Thandi Mbambo said police officers on patrol late Friday afternoon were stopped by community members who told them a couple with two children was fighting at Kroonpark under the bridge on Valsch River.
“On 3 July 2020 at about 17:28 pm, the police vehicle was stopped by (members of) the community at Dakota garage and they informed the police that there’s a white Toyota Corolla at Kroonpark under the Valsch River bridge and that the male person was fighting with a female person,” she said in a statement.
“On arrival the police discovered that a male person aged 42 from Khahliso Maokeng (in Kroonstad) had driven into the river with his family: his wife, 36, and two kids, girl aged 17 and a boy, nine.”
It is believed after hitting the wall of the bridge, the vehicle came to a stop in the river.
The man is said to have gotten out of the car and then dragged the woman into the river, resulting in both of them drowning.
“The children managed to get out of the car and went to seek help from a homeless person who was nearby,” Mbambo explained.
She said preliminary investigations have revealed that the man intended to kill himself and his family.
A case of murder, attempted murder and an inquest have been opened for further investigation.
The incident comes just a week after Bloemfontein police made a gruesome finding when a man and a woman were found dead in a motor vehicle parked by the side of the road in Bayswater.
The two were believed to be lovers.
The male, aged 41, and the woman, 31, both had gunshot wounds to the head when they were found near Gwen Bali Water World on the north-eastern outskirts of the city.
A community member told the police the vehicle, a gold Opel Zafira, had been parked there the previous night.
The engine of the car was still running and the lights were on when the police attended the scene.
A firearm was found in between the male occupant’s legs.
It was later established that the vehicle and firearm both belonged to the deceased man, an IT specialist from Bohlokong, Bethlehem.
The woman was later named as Dimakatso Constance Mokoena, a first-year human resources management student at Central University of Technology and originally from Phuthaditjhaba.
The woman was last seen a day earlier saying she was going to meet her boyfriend, who turned out to be the deceased.
The two, according to the police, are believed to have had an argument earlier on.