The Mpumalanga police have released a fifth suspect in the murder of Hillary Gardee pending professional expert statement to directly link him to the crime. 

According to spokesperson of the Mpumalanga police, Brig Selvy Mohlala, the man, who is originally from Nigeria, was taken for questioning and later charged after he was linked to the Gardee case through a cellphone and a laptop that belonged to the deceased. 

“The suspect has since been released following advice from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) that we get a statement from a professional expert regarding matters of gadgets usage and linking. The man is not off the hook on the case but we want to make sure that by the time he appears in court we have a very strong case,” said Mohlala. 

Mohlala said Gardee's cellphone number was used soon after she was killed. 

“We have been tracking this suspect and it transpired that soon after the victim was killed he used the gadgets of the deceased,” said Mohlala. 

According to sources close to the case, accused number four, Hlabirwa Rassie Nkuna, confessed to killing Gardee and also told the police during his arrest in Springs last Thursday that he had given the victim's gadgets to a Nigerian man known as “Biggy”. 

Nkuna has since appeared in the Delmas magistrate's court and abandoned his bail application and also appeared in the KaNyamazane magistrate's court on Tuesday in connection with another case of murder of his girlfriend Pretty Mazibuko and her sister Marcia Mazibuko. The sisters were murdered on May 15. 

Nkuna is set to appear for the Gardee case on Tuesday, joining Sipho Mkhatshwa, Philemon Lukhele and Albert Gama, who are co-accused in the matter. 

Gardee went missing on April 29 while shopping with her adopted three-year-old daughter. Her body was found dumped days later. 

Mkhatshwa has since been denied bail while Lukhele and Gama are still applying for theirs.