By: Natasha Archary
The Gardee family have welcomed the arrests of a 39-year old man in connection with the murder of their daughter, Hillary.
Mpumalanga police are confident they have arrested the correct suspect but say there may be more arrests in relation to Hillary Gardee’s murder.
This comes within the 72-hour timeframe that Police Minister, Bheki Cele promised the family.
The daughter of former EFF Secretary-General, Godrich Gardee went missing on 29 April, from a supermarket in Nelspruit.
Due to the high-profile nature of her disappearance, the Gardee family put up a R100 000 reward for her safe return.
She was, unfortunately found dead 45km outside Nelspruit on Tuesday, 3 May.
The family were left horrified that police failed to pick up that she had been shot execution-style, before they removed her body from the crime scene.
Her body was discovered by timber plantation workers in Mbombela, with a gunshot wound to her head.
The suspect was arrested on Friday, in Schoemansdal, east of Mbombela and just north of the border with Eswatini.
Before she was killed, Hillary had sent herself R1,300 via e-wallet and cash send. According to the EFF, this was done to make her death look like a common criminal act.
However, they do not believe that the motive for her murder was merely for that small amount of cash.
“We’re dealing with a criminal who can afford to have a gun and ammunition. In order to do that, one cannot simply kill someone for an amount so small.”
Hillary Gardee’s funeral is set to take place on Saturday, 7 May at Kamagugu township in Nelspruit.



