DNA helps solve cold case, say police

A man serving a three-year sentence for housebreaking in Pollsmoor has been positively linked to another housebreaking - 10 years ago, police say.

Fish Hoek police spokesman Warrant Officer Peter Middleton said the intruder had cut himself on a French door during a break-in in Fifth Avenue in 2011.

A DNA sample was taken, but, at the time, did not match anyone on the police’s DNA database.

However, the DNA was last week positively matched to a man in Pollsmoor, he said.

At the time, the man had lived on the streets in Fifth Avenue. He will appear in court next week where he will be charged with another count of housebreaking.

In a separate case, police arrested two men from Nyanga for their alleged involvement in three house robberies in Tenth Avenue, Disa Avenue, and Kenwood Street last month.

In each case, single elderly women were targeted. They were tied up while their homes were ransacked.

Siphadla Nkosi and Ayalulena Barnes appeared in the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court last week and face charges of house robbery.

The men were spotted by Detective Warrant Officer Jeremy Marten and Detective Warrant Officer Chris Cloete walking around Fish Hoek. They had recognised them from CCTV footage collected from neighbourhood watches, businesses, and members of the public.

In addition to CCTV footage, Detective Marten said, one of the suspects had also been positively linked to one of the crime scenes through his fingerprints.

In another arrest last month, Fish Hoek police arrested a man for his alleged involvement in a “money drop” scam.

Xolili Mfilifili, 52, appeared in the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s court earlier this month and is facing charges of kidnapping and common robbery after allegedly kidnapping a 20-year-old woman from Fish Hoek Main Road near Capitec Bank and withdrawing money from her account on Saturday, October 16. She was later dropped off unharmed in Main Road.

Warrant Officer Middleton said two people usually worked together in the scam. One drops a large sum of money in a busy area and looks out to see who has noticed the money on the ground. As a victim bends down to pick it up, so does the man who then suggests that they split the money.

The victim is lured to a quiet place to “split” the money and the man walks off with half of it. The victim is then approached by a “police officer” who accuses the victim of stealing the money and tells them they will not be charged if they pay back the other half of the money. He then escorts them to an ATM.

Mr Mfilifili was arrested on Friday, October 29 after police were alerted to the presence of his car in Beach Road. A second suspect is still at large.