Thabo Bester, a rapist and murderer who escaped from a South African prison by faking his own death, has been apprehended in Tanzania. Thabo Bester had been on the run for a year after it was thought he died by suicide by setting himself ablaze in his prison cell, according to the BBC on Saturday.
A manhunt was launched in March after a new post-mortem investigation revealed that the body was not his. Thabo Bester was apprehended with his girlfriend and a third suspect on Friday and will be returned to South Africa.
The trio intended to flee into neighboring Kenya, according to police.
Bester is known as the “Facebook rapist” because he uses the social networking site to lure his victims.
He was convicted in 2012 of raping and killing his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu. He had been convicted of raping and robbing two other women a year before.
He was discovered dead in his cell at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in the city of Bloemfontein in May after apparently setting himself on fire.
However, late last year, local media began to cast doubt on Bester’s death.
In March, police ordered a probe into his purported murder and further tests revealed the deceased was not Thabo Bester – and that the unidentified person had died from blunt-force trauma to the head.
Employees of the British-owned security company G4S, which ran the prison where he was held, have been accused of helping him escape.
It has said three employees were dismissed in connection with the incident.
Earlier this week, representatives for the organisation failed to attend a meeting in parliament about Bester’s escape. The BBC has approached G4S for comment.
There’ve been many reported sightings of Thabo Bester over the past year, including claims he was grocery shopping in an affluent suburb of Johannesburg, and was living in a rented mansion there.
