In 2018, a court heard that a British couple was brutally killed and their bodies tossed to crocodiles by a savage gang that pounced on them as they sought a remote South African nature reserve for rare seeds.
Respected botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, spent six months a year combing remote mountains and forests for desirable stock for their successful international mail-order business.
On their travels, however, they were allegedly targeted, kidnapped, beaten to death, and then placed in their sleeping bags and dumped into a river infested with man-eating animals.
When their horribly decayed bodies, which had been consumed by reptiles, were found from the water by fisherman days later, they could not be identified as the missing pair and were taken to mortuaries.
When the authorities were unable to locate the British couple months later, they ordered all unidentified or unclaimed bodies at morgues to undergo DNA testing. At that time, Rod and Rachel became recognized.
The exhaustive search for the seed hunters had already resulted in four arrests; three of them were charged with the couple’s murder, kidnapping, robbery, and theft.
Rod Saunders, 74, and Rachel Saunders, 63, a couple of adventure-seeking botanists, were reported missing on February 10, 2018, after entering the Ngoye Forest Reserve 30 miles north of Durban in South Africa.
The British couple was allegedly targeted, kidnapped, and murdered by a local married couple and their lodger, whose bodies were tossed to crocodiles.
Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger at the time, Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35, all deny charges of kidnapping, murder, robbery, and theft before the Durban High Court.
The fourth suspect, who was discovered to have purchased cell phones related to the Saunders but who was not involved in the kidnapping and murder, was handed a suspended sentence in exchange for crucial evidence.
The court was informed of the unfortunate couple’s final journey, as they were avid explorers who established a profitable business in Cape Town selling seeds they discovered in isolated regions to consumers throughout the world.
On February 5, 2018, they left their home in Cape Town in their Toyota Land Cruiser to meet a BBC TV documentary film crew 900 miles away in the Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu Natal.
Nick Bailey interviewed the internationally recognized botanists for an edition of Gardeners World as they sought the Drakensberg Mountain region for rare Gladioli flower seeds.
In fact, a selfie taken by Mr. Bailey and posted to his Twitter account, as well as a photograph taken by producer Robin Matthews during filming, are believed to be the final images of them alive.
The Saunders were most recently shot by a BBC documentary crew for an episode of Gardener’s World.
The last photographs believed to have been taken of Mr. Bailey and Mr. Matthews alive were a selfie taken by Mr. Bailey and shared on his Twitter account, and a photograph taken by producer Robin Matthews during filming.
After filming, horticulture Rod and his microbiologist wife Rachel, who had been married for more than three decades, parted ways with the TV host and set up camp at a dam near a lonely forest.
They had their last interaction with a Silverhill Seeds employee, which they ran from their home in Cape Town, on February 8, just three days before they were to see the BBC.
Dr. Saunders and her husband, Rod, were last heard from 90 miles north of Durban in the Ngoye Forest Reserve. On February 10, an alert was issued.
The court was informed: “On or about February 10, the investigating officer got information that Rodney Saunders and his wife, Dr. Rachel Saunders, both of Cape Town, had been kidnapped in the Kwa-Zulu Natal region.”
“It was determined on February 13 that the defendants stole R734,000 (£37,000) by withdrawing cash from numerous ATMs. Additionally, their Land Cruiser and camping gear were stolen.”
It was stated, “It is alleged that between February 10 and 15 in the Ngoye Forest, the accused unlawfully and intentionally murdered Rachel Saunders and during the same dates unlawfully and intentionally murdered Rodney Saunders.”
The pair spent six months a year searching remote mountains and forests for rare seeds for their booming international mail-order firm Silver Hill Seeds.
Dr. Saunders and her husband Rod notified an employee on February 8 that they were traveling 90 miles north of Durban to the Ngoye Forest Reserve, but they were never heard from again. Ten days later, on February 10, the alarm was sounded
Rod (left) and Rachel Saunders (center) were murdered while hiking with the Pacific Bulb Society.
Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, and his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, were detained on February 15, 2018 at their residence in Endlovini, which is only 50 kilometers from the Ngoye woodland where the Saunders disappeared.
The Hawks, a police team that combats organized crime, discovered a connection between the cell phones belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Saunders and the cell phones of the suspects and sought for a search order.
Reportedly, a number of products purchased using Dr. Saunders’ bank card were found, including receipts in Bibi Patel’s handbag that matched the date and time of the usage of Dr. Saunders’ bank card.
The court heard: ‘On March 23, the third defendant, Mussa Ahmad Jackson, was detained, and he stated that on February 10, Patel woke him up at their residence and instructed him to meet Del Vecchio on the road.
“Patel and Jackson followed Del Vecchio in the Land Cruiser to the Tugela River Bridge, where they helped him remove sleeping bags from the back of the Toyota and dropped the bags containing human bodies into the river,”
The court heard that on February 19, the victims’ Land Cruiser was retrieved with a substantial amount of blood in the cargo area, which was later proven to belong to Dr. Rachel Saunders.
Rachel’s body was retrieved from the crocodile-infested River Tugela by local fishermen on February 14 and Rod’s body was recovered on February 17; however, neither body was initially linked to the missing persons investigation.
Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger at the time, Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35, all deny kidnapping, murder, robbery, and theft. The unfortunate pair is pictured above on another seed quest with the Pacific Bulb Society.
The court heard that on February 19, the victims’ Land Cruiser was retrieved with a substantial amount of blood in the cargo area, which was later proven to belong to Dr. Rachel Saunders.
Rod and Rachel Saunders on one of their numerous treks into the South African highlands to collect seeds for their international mail-order gardening business in Cape Town.
Later DNA examinations in morgues revealed that a poorly decomposed male body in one mortuary was recognized as Rod on April 25 and that Rachel was identified on June 6 via a separate DNA test.
It is thought that both were beaten to death with a blunt weapon after being kidnapped and robbed, and then their bodies were thrown from a bridge into a river where crocodiles devoured them.
On February 10, Del Vecchio sent a message to his wife and their lodger stating that there was an old couple in the forest and that he had the target.
Del Vecchio allegedly sent the following message to an unknown recipient: “When the brothers in Kenya go out to conduct their work, it is vital that the victims’ bodies are never discovered.”
“It remains a case of a missing individual,” the notification stated.
When Rod and Rachel first met, he was the nursery manager of the world-renowned Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town and she was a prominent microbiologist at a local university.
Rachel was an avid collector of indigenous seeds and traveled to all areas of South Africa in search of various species of Gladioli; following their marriage, Rod abandoned his work to accompany her on her trips.
Rachel, a native of South Africa, obtained dual citizenship after marrying Rod, a native of the United Kingdom, and the couple traveled the world giving talks on their skill and passion for South African gladioli.
The pair founded Silverhill Seeds in 1995, naming it after their home on Silverhill Crescent, and grew it into a profitable home-based enterprise hiring people to sell seeds around the world.
The proceeding continues.