Canaan Mdletshe

Police continued their frantic search for a suspected serial killer after yet another decomposed body of a woman was found in a sugar cane field in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday - taking the number of bodies to four.

Three bodies were discovered last week and one person, Nombali Ngcobo, was identified after an ID book was found in her bag.

Nombali's sister, Thandeka Ngcobo, said her sister, who was working in Durban, had told them she had met a man who worked at a telecommunications company. He had "connections" at Nestle where he was going to get her a better-paying job.

"She went with him and her friend to Umzinto. When they got there, the man told the friend to wait while he showed Nombali a place where she would stay. But that was the last time she was seen alive," said Ngcobo.

Yesterday members from the Durban and Port Shepstone Dog Unit, Emergency Rescue Services and the Organised Crime Unit were in the Shayamoya area where they had barricaded the sugar cane plantation.

Superintendent Zandra Hechter said the body was as badly decomposed as the rest.