Krugersdorp's Family Of Killers

MONEY is said to be the reason a high-school teacher, her partner, children and friends committed seven cruel murders.

- Warren Robertson

WHEN the school children found her lying in the mud near a small stream in May of last year, 52-year-old Hanlie Lategan looked nothing like the energy filled, bubbly and much-loved estate agent her community in Krugersdorp knew

She had vanished just one day before, after setting off to meet clients, and now her family’s worst nightmare had come true. Her car was still parked near the Krugersdorp hospital where she had left it, but her accounts showed activity from the night before. At face value the death was seemingly the result of a random act of robbery, but police weren’t satisfied this was a standalone incident. In the months before Hanlie’s death insurance broker Kevin McAlpine was found dead after he failed to return from a meeting with a client. Earlier in the month, another insurance broker, Anthony Scholefield, had been found dead in his car’s boot. He too had had a meeting with a client and did not make the appointment. It was warning enough and police immediately set up a task team of investigators to look into the possibility that they were dealing with a serial killer. What they uncovered was horrific, grisly, and completely unique. It didn’t take investigators long to find the alleged perpatrators.