Police are nowhere near knowing what or who killed Cape high court acting Judge Patrick Maqubela.

Maqubela was found dead in his bed at his upmarket flat on Sunday afternoon, his face allegedly smothered in a pillow covered in blood.

Police initially said Maqubela had died of a massive heart attack, but by yesterday they were investigating murder.

Acting Judge Jake Moloi saw Maqubela's body on Sunday and insisted that Maqubela could not have died of a heart attack.

He told the Cape Argus newspaper: "If you get a heart attack, how do you lie in bed, face up, tuck a sheet around you and put a pillow on your face?"

But Maqubela's wife, Thandi, cast doubt on the murder talk, saying he often "bled through his orifices" as a result of hypertension.

The police refused to disclose whether they were investigating a mysterious woman known only as Amanda, who contacted Maqubela's secretary last Friday to say he had been admitted to a local state hospital.

Police said first postmortem results had been inconclusive and another would be done