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Rod and Rachel Saunders: Botanist couple beaten to death and fed to crocodiles by robbers in nature reserve

Three suspects have been identified as Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: An elderly British couple was brutally murdered and their bodies were tossed to a pack of crocodiles by a gang who pounced on the pair as they searched a remote forest area in South Africa in 2018, a court heart.

Globally renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, had spent six months a year searching wild mountains and forests for rare seeds for their worldwide mail-order business. But the trip turned into a gruesome accident after they were targeted, kidnapped, beaten to death, and tossed into a river infested by man-eating reptiles in February 2018.

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The bodies of the elderly couple were packed in their sleeping bags by the robber, which made it hard to locate them. Their badly decomposed body was located and pulled out of the water by local fishermen. Rachel’s body was recovered on February 14 while Rod’s body was found on February 17.

Barbarically devoured by the crocodiles, their bodies were unrecognizable as the missing couple and were brought to morgues. Months after police failed to find a trace of the British couple, the officials ordered all unclaimed bodies in morgues to be DNA tested. It was then that Rod and Rachel were identified.

The deputies launched a full-scale hunt for the respected botanists and managed to arrest four suspects. Three of the four suspects have been charged with the murder, kidnapping, robbery, and theft of the married couple. The fourth suspect, who was found to have bought cell phones belonging to the Saunders but was not involved in the kidnap and killing, was given a suspended sentence in return for vital evidence.

However, the three suspects identified as Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger at the time Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35, all denied kidnapping, murder, robbery, and theft at Durban High Court.

The court heard, "It is alleged that between February 10 and 15 at the Ngoye Forest the accused did unlawfully and intentionally kill Rachel Saunders and between the same dates did unlawfully and intentionally kill Rodney Sanders. On March 23 the third accused Mussa Ahmad Jackson was arrested and he made a statement to the effect he was woken by Patel at their home on February 10 and told to meet Del Vecchio on the road. Del Vecchio in the Land Cruiser and Patel and Jackson followed to the Tugela River Bridge where they helped him remove sleeping bags from the back of the Toyota and they threw them with human bodies inside into the river."

The tragic botanist couple, who were keen on traveling and adventures, had been making a documentary with the BBC at the time of their death. As per the schedule, they left their home in Cape Town in their Toyota Land Cruiser on February 5, 2018, to keep a rendezvous in the Drakensberg Mountains in Kwa-Zulu Natal 900 miles away with the film crew. The couple was interviewed by host Nick Bailey for an episode of Gardeners World as they searched the mountain for rare Gladioli flower seeds.

They last contacted an employee at their workplace Silverhill Seeds on February 08, just three days after they started the adventure with the BBC documentary crew. The court also heard that the suspects had made a withdrawal of £37,000 (R734,000) from various ATMs after they arrested the couple.