Two respected British botanists were murdered by a South African kidnap gang and their bodies dumped in a river to be eaten by crocodiles, a court heard.
Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, were attacked four years ago while foraging for wild seeds in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal for their mail order business.
The couple were killed shortly after being interviewed for an episode of BBC Gardeners’ World and their photos with presenter Nick Bailey are said to be the last photos taken of the pair.
The two disappeared while searching for rare gladioli seeds in the Drakensberg Mountains in February 2018.
Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger at the time, Musa Ahmad Jackson, 35, all denied charges of kidnapping, murder, robbery and theft in the Durban High Court.
Saunders and his wife, who was a microbiologist, co-owned Silverhill Seeds, a Cape Town company specializing in South African seeds and selling books. They spent months each year searching for specimens in remote mountains and forests.
The couple, who have been married for more than 30 years, left their home in Cape Town in their Toyota Land Cruiser on February 5 to meet a BBC crew 900 miles away in the Drakensberg Mountains.
After being interviewed by Mr. Bailey, they headed to camp next to a dam in a remote forest.
Add Comment