…people seeking to identify victim

Sunday night gunshots rang out on the railway embankment on the border between Buxton and Annandale but no one ventured outside.

Some peeped through their windows. A short while later they saw a large bonfire. A car had been set alight on the Buxton side of the border.

Early this morning, people left their homes to see the shell of a car that bore little resemblance to what it was before the fire.

The only things that remained were the springs that supported the seats, the frame of the vehicle and the rims that once had tyres. The trunk of the vehicle was empty and what could have been the spare wheel was in the trench nearby.

The body of a man who up to press time remained unidentified lay off the embankment about 40 metres from the burnt out vehicle on the Annandale side of the border. It bore gunshot wounds, one of which entered the right side of the body.

People in the vicinity of the killing were tight-lipped but they quietly directed reporters to the body which was clad in a blue short pants and brown armless vest with the markings of the figure 7. The body also had the tattoo of a lion on the upper right arm.

There was speculation of how the man met his death. The location where the shell of the car was found was beyond a barricade that separated Annandale from Buxton. The driver could not have entered Buxton from Annandale by way of the railway embankment.

A large ditch would have also prevented the vehicle from using the railway embankment.

A police press release said that the police, acting on information at about 13:45hrs yesterday, went to Annandale Embankment road where they found the body of an unidentified male Negro lying in a drain south of the embankment road, with several wounds about his body suspected to be from gunshots.

The police described the body as being about 5' 6" tall, brown in complexion, thin built and about 25 years old. The corpse is presently at the Lyken Funeral Parlour awaiting post mortem, the release added.

During the exercise to retrieve the body police received further information and went into the village of Buxton where they extracted a burnt white AT 192 Carina motorcar.

News of the killing sent many people to the Lyken Funeral Home seeking to identify the body but they all failed to do so.

At the scene of the killing there were drops of blood that suggested that the victim must have been running away after he sustained the first gunshot.

That would suggest that the victim must have been outside the car when he was confronted and shot by persons so far unidentified.

The police are working on the theory that the car entered the village by means other than the railway embankment. They believe that he must have been no stranger to the village but they are at their wits end to ascertain a reason for the killing.

Tuesday 09-20-2005