A rapist and murderer who faked his own death to flee a South African prison have been apprehended in Tanzania. Thabo Bester was on the run for a year after it was believed he burned himself to death in his prison cell.
Last month, a manhunt was initiated after a new postmortem examination revealed that the body was not his.
Together with his fiancée and a third suspect, Bester was apprehended on Friday and will be extradited to South Africa.
The police believe the three suspects intended to flee into neighboring Kenya.
Bester is known as the “Facebook Violent Offender” due to his use of social networking websites to ensnare his victims.
In 2012, he was convicted of raping and murdering his model fiancée, Nomfundo Tyhulu. He had been convicted of raping and robbing two other women a year earlier.
In May, it was reported that he was found deceased in his cell at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein after having apparently set himself on fire.
Late last year, however, local media began to cast doubt on Bester’s demise.
Police opened a new murder investigation in March after additional testing revealed that the victim was not Bester and that the unidentified person had perished from head trauma.
Employees of the British-owned security firm G4S, which operated the prison where he was detained, have been accused of assisting him in his escape.
According to the company, three employees were terminated as a result of the incident.
This week, representatives for the organization did not attend a parliamentary meeting regarding Bester’s escape. The BBC has requested comment from G4S.
There have been numerous reports of Bester’s sightings over the past year, including claims that he was grocery shopping in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb and residing in a rented mansion there.
South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of sexual assault, was outraged by Bester’s escape.
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