Teen school girl raped and killed by a trusted family member.

A 17-year-old South African student, Owami Visagie, was raped and murdered allegedly by her cousin in Gauteng, South Africa. 

The student who  was last seen going to extra classes on Sunday, March 24, 2024, was later found dead at her cousin’s house in Refilwe in Cullinan, east of Pretoria.

The girl left her house on Sunday morning and by 6 pm when she was still not home, her mother filed a missing person’s report. It was later established that the victim was last seen with her cousin. Subsequently, the authorities went to the cousin’s house where her body was discovered.

The 30-year-old suspect has since handed himself over on Monday night and has  appeared in a local Magistrate’s Court in South Africa.

The suspect was said to be so close to the deceased that even the girl’s mother used to leave him with her when she went out.  

All the suspect said was, ‘I didn’t do it. He said he ran away because he was afraid that he could be killed by the community if he he got caught.

The police spokesperson, Lt. Col Mavela Masondo, confirmed that the suspect handed himself in to the police.  

Meanwhile, crime experts have always maintained that in the vast majority of crimes of sexual assault, the accused is known to the victim (in 80% of sexual offences in 2002). Two fifths of all victims (41%) were assaulted by an acquaintance, 10% by a friend, 28% by a family member, and the remaining 20% were victimized by a stranger.