The Kempton Park killings investigation widened to a ninth scene on Thursday, 17 September 2026, when a woman’s body was found in an open space in Dawn Park, Boksburg.
Nine women have now been found dead across Ekurhuleni since mid-July, as reported by IOL News. Swisher Post covered the case earlier in September, when the toll stood at four and a body had been recovered in Rhodesfield. Police have not confirmed a link between the deaths.
What police said about the ninth Kempton Park victim
The woman, believed to be about 30, was found partially naked on Lama Street, near a railway line and an informal settlement, her throat cut and her identity not established.
Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said preliminary information indicated she had been killed elsewhere and dumped there.
“A multidisciplinary team of experts has already been mobilised to work on the cases and ensure that those responsible for these crimes are brought before the court.”
Acting Gauteng police commissioner Major General Fred Kekana confirmed that reading. He said preliminary pathology findings on the woman found in KwaThema, Springs, showed she had been strangled, with no cause of death yet released for the Dawn Park body.
How the Kempton Park killings have unsettled Ekurhuleni
Residents reached the scene on Thursday morning still in slippers, dressing gowns and blankets, gathering at the edge of the open ground. Zizipho Ntoyanto, 35, said the dead woman was understood to be from the neighbourhood.
“We heard she’s from the area, but I don’t know her. We are scared and living in fear. We are not safe at all.”
Bodies have been recovered across Kempton Park, Pomona, Clayville, Rhodesfield, Springs and now Boksburg.
Only three of the women have been publicly named, as Itumeleng Kekana, 32, Elizabeth Moselakgomo, 38, and Dineo Evelyn Motapane, 38. Thebelihle Mthethwa, 48, described the same fear.
“The way things are happening, we are very concerned as women. We don’t feel safe anymore.”
What happens next in the Kempton Park killings case
Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili went to the Dawn Park scene on Thursday and told reporters that the national head office had taken a direct role rather than leaving the investigation to the province.
“We cannot give a case of this magnitude to the province alone. At least the national head office is here.”
“There have been incidents before that we managed to crack and solve. I am very confident, and I will say this, putting my head on the block, that the teams that we have are very much able and capable of doing it.”
Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane said officers were tracing a person of interest. Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia, who ordered a police lockdown of the area, cautioned on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, that it was too early to call the deaths a pattern.
A police reward of R400 000 stands, with a separate R500 000 offered by the Democratic Alliance, which police said they were not consulted on. Naming the Dawn Park woman is the investigation’s first step.
