THANDI SKADE and CANDICE BAILEY
A BELLY ring and two earrings were the items which confirmed that the burnt body of a teenager was Louise de Waal’s.
Only hours earlier she had been kidnapped from the side of the road at gunpoint while walking with a friend to school.
Louise and Natasha Gordon were walking along Rina Street in White Ridge, Florida, when they noticed a silver-grey Toyota Hilux single-cab bakkie without number plates. The girls sensed there was something suspicious about the man behind the wheel and started to run.
He chased them, stopped his car and got out.
Even though Natasha was apparently closer to the thug, he pushed her away from him and went directly for Louise.
Natasha started tugging at Louise’s arm as he tried to force her into the car. The kidnapper pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot Natasha if she screamed and didn’t let go of her friend.
Louise was pulled into the bakkie and the man sped away with her.
The last time Shireen de Waal saw her daughter was on Tuesday night.
She had said good night to her daughter before going to bed. She heard the teenager, who was to have turned 17 on Sunday, leave the house the next morning.
She never returned.
Louise’s body was found by a farm owner who spotted smoke coming from his land. He went to investigate and found the charred remains.
Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said last night the police could not confirm whether the body found yesterday was Louise’s body.
“The body was burnt beyond recognition,” he said.
“We’re waiting on the pathologist for DNA analysis,” he said.
Sources close to the investigation said the body was found at about 11am yesterday, but the family were notified only late yesterday afternoon.
A vehicle fitting the description of the abductor’s bakkie was found at a house in Roodekrans, Roodepoort, yesterday. A schoolbag matching Louise’s was found in the vehicle.
“We don’t know who the house belongs to. It was empty at the time police found it,” Ndou said.
Friends and family described the Grade 11 Hoër- skool Die Burger prefect as a popular, kind-hearted academic achiever.
“She was a kind, loving, caring girl. She just became a prefect and everyone loved her,” a pupil said.
Last night Louise’s mother was too distraught to speak, but she said earlier yesterday that she was struggling to comprehend why anyone would want to abduct or harm her child.
She said the man in the police identikit looked “familiar” but she couldn’t place him.
“She was never violent, she never felt hatred for anyone, she’s my angel. I truly believe she’s a spirited child who God has touched.
“She’s such a spirited, wonderful child, beautiful inside and outside,” she said.
No arrests have been made and police are hunting for the man, aged between 20 and 30. He has brown hair and stubble.