Police have pounced near Johannesburg on the man suspected of being the “Facebook rapist” while he was in a house with a woman he was alleged to have kidnapped.
The man, who goes by the name Thomas Bester and has used at least 13 aliases, had evaded police around the country for months.
He was arrested in an Alberton house where the woman was being held. He appeared in a Johannesburg court on Thursday.
But police did not realise he was one of their most wanted suspects until two days later, when he phoned an officer working on the case to say he had been arrested.
The Hawks are expected to take Bester from Alberton to Durban on Monday. The date of his next court appearance has yet to be decided.
Bester, 22, is suspected of having committed dozens of crimes in Cape Town, Durban and Gauteng, including murdering a model in Milnerton last month and raping two models in Durban about two months ago.
Neville Eva, the investigating officer in the case, said that on Wednesday police had received information that Bester was in Johannesburg, but by the afternoon they had lost track of him.
On Friday, Bester phoned Anton Booysen, KwaZulu-Natal head of the Psychologically Motivated Crimes Unit, and told him he had been arrested on Wednesday. It was his third call to Booysen.
Eva said it was after this call that police realised the man arrested in Alberton was Bester.
“What he did in Alberton is vague at this stage, but he was caught in the act of kidnapping a woman,” he said.
According to officers, he gave police a different name when taken into custody.
The Hawks, police and community organisations had been trying for months to track Bester through social media and the laptops and cellphones he used. Eva said police were now trying to correlate the cases involving Bester.
National police spokesman Vish Naidoo said at least 30 cases had been opened against Bester.
On Sunday, the mother of a woman Bester allegedly raped and stabbed in August said she and her daughter were relieved he had been caught.
“We’re over the moon. We’re so thankful to the Hawks and the private investigator for working around the clock,” the mother said. “It’s a long road ahead, but we’ve won round one.”
The mother had hired private investigator Nico Potgieter of Enforce Investigators who, with his director, Anthony Feuilherade, had worked with police.
A number of officers said they had a watertight case against Bester as evidence included fingerprints and traces of blood they said would link him to crime scenes. Also, victims would be able to point him out at an identity parade.
Jean Viljoen, a guest house owner in Newlands, said Bester and a young woman, with whom he had spoken in Zulu, had stayed there for a week in May, and left without paying.
“I realised I’d been duped when they left with blankets, pillows, hairdryers and a remote and keys ... He’s a very flashy dresser, he wore royal blue pants with silver trim.”
Viljoen said the man had signed in as Thomas Berter, but had signed a guest book as Thomas Kelly Bester.
This was the name police said Bester had used on Facebook. Nine days ago, Bester’s Facebook account was deleted. - Cape Times