Muti Killers Haunt South Africa's Trails

0:00On April 3rd, 800 Zulu locals packed a community hall two days back, demanding cops launch a full probe into a wave of brutal murders around. Makuse, a town of 50,000 in Zulu land, they listed 10 victims from the area. Men, women, kids, snatched from homes or roads, then hacked apart alive. Folks blame a syndicate peddling body parts to single mass, those traditional healers brewing beauty potions for luck or cures. Shockingly, the 11th name dropped was Lorna Mixorly, a 71-year-old British tourist who vanished last September. Lorna, from Tangmouth, in Devon, disappeared on a solo walk through sugarcane fields near Ghost Mountain Inn during a T.U.I. coach tour. She was with her 81-year-old partner, Leon Probert, but split off alone, ignoring warnings about wildlife and risks. Cops found her crumpled map by a river track, but nothing else. No clothes, no blood, no trace. For six months, they've called her just missing, even as another elderly woman got grabbed and dumped minus an arm a mile away in January.

1:04Grieving families wailed at the meeting, tempers boiling over the unsolved spree that's got everyone on edge. The local mayor fumed that Lorna's case got buried to shield the sugar economy from scaring off British visitors. Back home, Leon's drowning in guilt and her brother G.F. in Hartfordshire, now figures she fell to mutacillers. No animal attack leaves zero evidence, like this. Now the case is heating up. It's shifting from a swamped local detective to two sharp ones from Devon, four hours away. Security folks spotted suspicious phone pings near the map site right when she'd have passed, hinting at a gang ambush. Community leaders point to six years of similar hits, including kids and elders, fueling fears in a country where mutae claims hundreds yearly amid. Sky high crime. Dispush brings hope for answers, but as spotlight South Africa's dark underbelly, stay vigilant if you're traveling those wild trails.