A retired couple was ruthlessly stabbed to death and their bodies dumped in a crocodile-infested river in the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

A group of tourists discovered the bodies of Ernst Marais, 71, and his wife, Dina Marais, 73, on the morning of Friday, May 22, in the Limpopo River, near Crooks Corner at the National Park, reports the New York Post. The victims reportedly had multiple stab wounds on their upper bodies, and their hands were tied behind their backs.

A police source theorized that the slain couple must have come across a group of poachers, who allegedly killed them to stop them from alerting other people about their illegal operation.

The source alleged that the poachers stabbed the older couple multiple times on their upper bodies and tied their hands behind their backs. The tourists were then dragged into and dumped in the river.

The South African source then opined that the murdered couple’s pick-up truck would have been an easy means to “transport anything they were carrying if they were smugglers and there are unfenced ways to get across the river into Mozambique.”

The couple’s nephew, Hjalmar van Gessellen, 53, told the Mossel Bay Advertiser that they loved Mossel Bay and that they trekked over 1,100 miles to Kruger to ring in Dina’s birthday on May 19. They were supposed to spend a week at the park, but were reported missing by a camp maid on Thursday, May 21, when they failed to return, thus triggering a search operation.

The tourist couple was last seen on Wednesday, May 20, at the Pafuri picnic site in the northern part of the park.

According to the New York Post, a source at the National Park said that searchers initially hoped Ernst and Dina had gone off the road and their vehicle had broken down following heavy local flooding. That hope ended when they received news of the discovery of two bodies.

“Both had been stabbed in what was clearly a very brutal attack and had been thrown into the river, no doubt for the crocs,” the source said. They also noted that the slain couple’s vehicle, a green Ford-Ranger double-cab, had been stolen.

“This is a very major incident for us. This is an extremely safe national park, and this has shocked us all.”

The investigation is currently ongoing, with a search for the killers underway.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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The Provincial Commissioner of Police in Limpopo, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe, has put together a team of investigators and deployed resources aimed at tracing the whereabouts of the killers.

Meanwhile, according to the Daily Maverick, SANParks has tightened security in the park and deployed additional rangers and monitoring equipment to the Nxanatseni North Region following the brutal Marais murders.

The killings are described as the first of their kind in the Kruger National Park’s over 100-year history. The murders have sent shock waves across the country.