A BRIT couple were allegedly beaten to death by an ISIS-linked trio – who threw their bodies to crocs and went on a £37k spending spree with their credit cards, a court heard.
World renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were pounced upon as “a good hunt” while scouring a mountain region in South Africa for rare seeds.
In a resumed High Court trial in Durban, South Africa, Sayfudeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 41, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 30, and Malawian Mussa Ahmed Jackson, 35, were accused of the couple's brutal robbery and murder.
They are said to have packed their bodies up into sleeping bags before dumping them into crocodile infested waters from a bridge.
The trio, who are believed to have links to ISIS, then used the couple's credit cards at ATM's and in a series of shops – spending around £37,000 in total.
Their bodies were recovered days later by a fisherman who accidentally discovered them after the pair vanished in 2018.
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But due to them being so badly decomposed, it was months before the couple were identified.
DNA tests and post mortems were then carried to try and establish the cause of death.
A doctor told the court that following the examination of the bodies, grim evidence of “scavenger activity” was clearly visible.
"The damage to the bodies suggest that something could have fed on them.
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“For example a crocodile due to the lost tissue on the arms, neck and chest. Once the bodies were pushed into the banks then dogs and rats could have fed on it," the doctor said.
It was reported that the couple had died of blunt trauma injury before they were fed to crocs.
Microbiologist Dr Rachel Saunders and horticulturist Rodney, who were married for 30 years, spent six months a year in remote South African mountains searching for rare Gladioli plant seeds.
They sold them world-wide from their mail order business Silverhill Seeds in Cape Town, and travelled the globe lecturing on them until the the gruesome murder following their trip to a remote forest.
The Saunders left their home in Cape Town on February 4, 2018, to meet a BBC TV documentary film crew 900 miles up country in the Drakensberg Mountains to film an episode for Gardeners World.
They were then interviewed by presenter Nick Bailey as they searched for rare Gladioli seeds.
A selfie taken by Bailey and posted on his Twitter account, and a photo taken by producer Robin Matthews were the last snaps of them alive.
After filming they left the BBC team and headed for the Ngoye Forest where they were targeted by the gang and it is alleged they were followed and ambushed before being kidnapped and brutally murdered.
The trio are alleged to have targeted and beaten the couple to death with a blunt instrument before dumping the bodies.
Their badly decomposed and half-eaten bodies were found in the River Tugela in the Ngoye Forest, but could not initially be identified.
They were then taken to local mortuaries where they were stored.
A full scale police search was already on for the couple after all contact was lost with them – and it was only months later when DNA tests were ordered on all unclaimed bodies in morgues that they were found.
They were allegedly last in contact with an employee on February 8, 2018, and said they were heading for the Ngoye Forest.
The alarm was raised two days later when no one had heard from them.
The court was told: "Around February 10 the investigating officer received information that Rodney Saunders and his wife Dr Rachel Saunders had been kidnapped in the KwaZulu-Natal region.
“It was established on February 13 that the defendants were drawing money from ATM’s which amounted to theft of £37,000 and there was the robbery of their Toyota Land Cruiser and camping gear.
“It is alleged that between February 10 and 15 at the Ngoye Forest the accused did unlawfully and intentionally kill Rachel Saunders and between the same dates did unlawfully and intentionally kill Rodney Saunders."
The elite Hawks police squad had found a link between the cell phones belonging to Mr and Mrs Saunders and the cell phones of the suspects.
They then arrested the three accused and charged them with murder.
They also found ISIS pamphlets and flags at their home and messages on their phones discussing “killing the kuffar” and saying there is a couple in the forest who would make a “good hunt”.
The court heard: "On March 23 the third accused Jackson was arrested and he made a statement to the effect he was woken by Patel at their home on February 10 and told to meet Del Vecchio on the road.
“Del Vecchio was in the Land Cruiser and Patel and Jackson followed to the Tugela River Bridge where they helped him remove the sleeping bags from the back and threw them with human bodies inside into the river”.
The victim’s Land Cruiser was recovered in a grisly state on February 19 with large amounts of blood inside.
South African born Rachel received British citizenship when she married British born Rod and the pair travelled the world educating on the Gladioli of South Africa.
In 1995 Rod quit his job as nursery manager at the world famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, and leading university microbiologist Rachel quit hers before the pair set up Silverhill Seeds.
It was a successful business as the couple worked from home while employing staff to sell their seeds around the world.
They were known to spend six months a year camping in the wild, gathering stock to sell by mail order.
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Married couple Del Vecchio and Patel, and their lodger Jackson, have denied kidnap, murder, robbery and theft at Durban High Court.
The trial continues.
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