'Find the VW Polo, so we can know what happened,' begs the grieving father of one cop

“ONLY the investigation and finding the missing VW Polo can tell us what happened to my daughter,” were the heartfelt words of the father of Constable Boipelo Senoge, 24, one of three police officers who went missing and were later found dead in the Hennops River in Centurion.

This follows confirmation from National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola that the Volkswagen Polo the trio had been travelling in had not yet been found.

Masemola said locating the missing vehicle could be key to solving the case, which has gripped the nation after the officers’ bodies were among five retrieved from the river.

Speaking during a media briefing at the river on Tuesday night, Masemola confirmed the families had identified the bodies of Constables Keamogetswe Buys, 30, Boipelo Senoge, and Cebekhulu Linda, 24, at the Tshwane mortuary.

Buys and Cebekhulu were members of Operation Vala Umgodi, which is a police unit aimed at tackling illicit mining activities.

Buys worked in the cybercrime division, while Cebekhulu was attached to crime intelligence.

Senoge, meanwhile, worked at the Park Road police station charge office in Bloemfontein. 

According to her family, she was off duty and had been accompanying her boyfriend, Cebekhulu, to Limpopo when she disappeared.

The officers were last seen in the early hours of Thursday at a petrol station near the Grasmere Toll Plaza on the N1 in Gauteng. 

Their vehicle, a silver VW Polo hatchback with registration number JCL 401 FS, along with their cellphones and tracking devices, were all switched off after leaving the petrol station.

Masemola said police found vehicle parts believed to be from a VW Polo along the N1. 

That led investigators to the riverbank, where a Renault Kangoo panel van was discovered.

SAPS and Tshwane Metro Police divers immediately launched a search operation that resulted in the discovery of multiple bodies.

“One of the bodies was that of the driver of the Renault panel van, who, we have just learned, is one of our employees attached to the Lyttelton police station,” said Masemola.

He said the man’s wife reported that her husband had visited friends in the area on Saturday and never returned. 

Around 2 am Sunday, she checked the vehicle’s tracker and saw the car was about a kilometre from their home in Hennops Park. 

However, she did not report him missing until Monday, when a passerby spotted a vehicle submerged in the river and alerted authorities.

The search led to the recovery of two bodies on Monday. One of them was identified as Constable Senoge. 

The operation was paused due to darkness and resumed the following morning.

“Tuesday morning, the third body was discovered, believed to be that of Constable Linda,” Masemola said.

A fourth decomposed body was later found, which remains unidentified. 

By Tuesday afternoon, search teams had located the fifth body, later confirmed to be that of Constable Buys.

Boipelo’s father, Paul Senoge, said his daughter had told them she was accompanying Cebekhulu and Buys to Limpopo and would return home by Friday.

“She said she is accompanying them to Limpopo, then she will fly back home … She was supposed to return and go to work on Friday,” he said.

Senoge said the family had been praying for her safe return.

“We hoped that she would return home safe and well as she left home, but that did not happen…”

He said the family had found a small measure of peace now that her body had been recovered.

“The only closure that we are having is that they found the body of our daughter. It’s hard to miss your daughter for days like that — I mean, it's been more than three days. That’s all that brings closure to the family...”

Senoge also confirmed that his daughter and Constable Linda were in a relationship.

“The two were in a relationship, but they were not yet married. They did not have any children,” he said.

Now, he said, the family wants answers and accountability.

“As General Masemola said, we want the police to investigate further to find out what exactly happened to them and to the vehicle they were travelling in,” Senoge said. 

“We just wish they could find the vehicle so that they can tell us what happened.”

Meanwhile, the search for the missing VW Polo continues, with police and search-and-rescue teams still combing the Hennops River for any remaining clues.