The body of 15-year-old Laticia Princes Jansen, a grade 9 learner at Germiston High School was found close to a river in Elsburg on Friday.
News24 reported that school transport left some pupils behind on Wednesday morning, January 22 and that they had to walk to school. The kids allegedly took a shortcut through some bushes but Jansen never made it to school or back home on Wednesday.
When Jansen didn’t make it home, her grandmother allegedly went to the school where she was told her granddaughter was absent from school that Wednesday. They came under fire for an apparent lack of empathy when the girl’s grandmother reported she was missing.
Reports state that Gauteng police are doing an internal investigation into accusations that Jansen’s grandmother was turned away on Thursday when she tried to file a missing person report. She was requested to bring a photograph of the teen.
Members of the community started their own search and later found Laticia Jansen’s body. Reports claim that she had been stabbed, raped and burnt, but police spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said the full extent of her injuries would be confirmed through a post-mortem examination.
Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said on Monday that details of her disappearance were still sketchy.
