Victim angry with police for ‘closing’ case
“From the time I got a case number, I have had not a single call from anyone at Honeydew Police Station. I didn't even know the name of the detective handling the case,” Alcina complained.
They were initially unhappy with the Honeydew Police for delaying the collection of fingerprints from their burgled home earlier this year.
Now the Strubens Valley couple, Alcina Birk and her husband Paul, are furious, having learned that their case of housebreaking, which left their steel safe badly damaged by a grinder, has been closed.
“From the time I got a case number, I have had not a single call from anyone at Honeydew Police Station. I didn’t even know the name of the detective handling the case,” Alcina complained.
Read the initial article here:
https://roodepoortnorthsider.co.za/276651/police-delay-examining-bloody-scene/
As a concerned homeowner who wanted justice to be served and tried to find out whether police were following up any leads, she said she visited the police station almost five months later, only to be told that the case had been closed.
“I went to the Honeydew Police Station on 8 September. For the first time I was given the name of the detective, and then I was told the case was closed as no suspects had been arrested,” she said. She was extremely upset when hearing that the police had closed the case without even informing her.
She said that on Monday, 10 September the detective paid her a visit to share progress on the case. She was told that the case was pending, as they were awaiting the results of the blood tests that were being conducted in Pretoria.
Honeydew Police spokesperson, Captain Balan Muthan, confirmed the detective’s visit and explained that the blood was handled by the Local Criminal Record Centre (LCRC), not by Honeydew Police. “The suspects are unknown at this stage, but if we are able to use the results to establish identities and link the suspects with the blood, the case will be reopened,” Muthan said.
Alcina’s home was burgled in May while they were away. When they returned home they found that someone had attempted to open the safe with a grinder and left it smeared with blood. It took days before the police visited the crime scene to take blood samples and fingerprints.
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