An alert detective outsmarted a murder suspect who tried to escape from a crime scene by hitching a lift. 

Northern Cape police said Sgt Essie Esterhuyse, the detective on standby at Kakamas police station, was alerted to a murder on Sunday evening. The woman had been stabbed and beaten to death.

Esterhuyse was en route to the crime scene when he was approached by an unknown male who jumped on the back of the bakkie, said police spokesperson Capt Nelis Prins.

Suspicions aroused, the detective decided to drive back to the police station to interview the hitchhiker.

“In the community service centre he noticed blood on the suspect’s trousers.”

Placing him under the watch of colleagues, Esterhuyse returned to the murder scene. There he learnt the 32-year-old suspect had been in a relationship with the slain woman and was believed to have been involved in her death. He was subsequently arrested for murder.

Acting district commissioner of the ZFM district, Brig Johnny Besnaar, commended Esterhuyse “for his alertness and sharp investigative skills which led to the apprehension and arrest of the suspect”.

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