A leaked study indicates that “Facebook Rapist” Thabo Bester’s death at Mangaung Correctional Centre in May of last year was murder and not suicide.
The unusual circumstances surrounding the supposed death of convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester were published by GroundUp a year ago.
The Department of Correctional Services stated on 3 May 2022 that Bester’s body was discovered in his cell at the private jail near Bloemfontein. Bester had been secluded in a cell where a mattress had been set on fire. A body was found beneath the mattress, irretrievably burnt beyond recognition. The Mangaung Correctional Facility
Police initially described the death as a suspected suicide; however, the post-mortem revealed that the victim in the cell, thought to be Bester, was already dead before the fire began.
The autopsy results were included in a jail visit report disclosed by Free State High Court judges Nokuthula Daniso and Ilse Van Rhyn in December of last year. After receiving a complaint, the judges visited the prison to investigate the circumstances surrounding Bester’s death.
There are still many unanswered questions regarding Bester’s death, including whether the burnt body discovered from his prison cell was in fact his. GroundUp has been unable to confirm with the South African Police Service whether or not DNA testing on the body has been completed.
The Free State Department of Health informed us in November that the body was still in the department’s custody. But this contradicts the judges’ findings, which stated that Bester’s body was sent over to his alleged girlfriend and biological mother sometime in May, according to a statement released by Detective Captain Tieho Jobo Flyman on 25 May 2022.
Bester was dubbed the “Facebook Rapist” because he utilized the social networking site to attract women by claiming international scouts were interested in them. He would then use a knife to rape and rob them. At least one of his victims was murdered. For these acts, he was sentenced to life in prison in 2012.
Bester was incarcerated in the second-largest private jail in the world, the maximum security Mangaung prison. The facility is managed by the global security firm G4S.
After Bester’s death was confirmed, the body was reportedly sent to a government morgue and an autopsy was conducted. The autopsy report revealed that the victim’s skull was injured and that there was no indication of smoke inhalation in the airways. The investigation also found that the trachea of the deceased had a paraffin-like odor.
The doctor who performed the autopsy stated that “head injuries resulting in brain injuries were the cause of death.”
As a result, the charge against the defendant was changed from suicide to murder.
The judge’s findings described the circumstances surrounding Bester’s death as “worrisome.” The cops are currently investigating the event.
Following the fire in Bester’s cell, a source (whose name is known to GroundUp) said that prison officials and the police “covered up” his death.
Additionally, the informant claimed that they chatted with Bester a few days before he passed away. Bester was “unusually cheerful” and even mentioned that he would be “leaving soon.” This seemed weird to the source, given Bester was serving a life sentence.
The insider additionally asserted that on the day Bester supposedly committed himself, neither his behavior nor the fire exhibited any peculiarities. During the event, “prison officials were simply walking ‘up and down’ to Mr. Bester’s cell,” according to the source.
Five of the nineteen detainees who died at the Mangaung prison between January 2021 and October 2022 died of unnatural causes, according to the report of the judges. Among unnatural deaths are homicides and suicides.
At the time of publication, GroundUp had not received responses to queries made to the Free State Department of Health. We inquired if the body was positively identified as Thabo Bester by the medical practitioner who performed the autopsy or by the mortuary where the autopsy was conducted; if so, how Bester’s body was identified (if by DNA or dental records); if they still had the body, and if not, when it was released.
»Murder at the Mangaung Correctional Facility«