Gauteng police have mobilised a full search-and-investigation operation along the Hennops River near the R511 outside Diepsloot, after a 43-year-old mother was allegedly raped and her four-month-old baby was found buried in a shallow grave. The suspect at the centre of the manhunt is a pastor who, according to preliminary police information, had travelled to the river with the woman and his own wife to perform a ritual. What began as a missing-persons effort has since become a coordinated deployment of specialised units working against the clock to locate both the suspect and answers about how the infant died.
The operational sequence, as described by the police, shows how quickly resources were moved once the alarm was raised. After the woman was attacked and tied up, she managed to free herself and sought help at a nearby construction site. A private security company was activated, and the police were alerted. From that point the response shifted into gear: a multidisciplinary team was assembled and sent to the scene without delay.
Provincial police spokesperson Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi detailed the composition of that team, which included crime scene management personnel, search and rescue units, general detectives, Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences detectives, and drone operators. Their mandate was twofold: to search for the missing infant and to locate the pastor and his wife, both of whom had fled the scene with the baby. The baby had been left in the care of the pastor’s wife while the pastor and the mother walked toward the river, which is where the alleged assault took place.
The first concrete result came when the 24-year-old wife of the pastor was located and questioned by investigators. Her cooperation produced the breakthrough in the search for the child. She led investigators to a shallow grave, where the baby’s body was found. Police have since confirmed the discovery was made on Wednesday, 07 October 2026, and the service publicised the case through its official channels, with the original notice published at https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/graphic-content-gp-police-hunt-for-a-pastor-accused-of-rape-murder/.
From an execution standpoint, the case now rests on two parallel workstreams. The first is the investigation itself: a case of kidnapping, rape and murder has been opened, and detectives from the specialised family violence and child protection unit are among those assigned. The second is the manhunt, which remains open as long as the pastor is at large. Nevhuhulwi confirmed that the investigation is under way while the search for him continues, meaning the operational picture is only partially resolved. One suspect is in custody and has been processed through questioning; the principal suspect is not.
Meanwhile, the deployment of drone operators alongside ground teams points to the difficult terrain involved in a riverbank search, where a shallow grave can be concealed within a wide perimeter. The fact that the body was located within the same operation that deployed those resources suggests the multidisciplinary structure functioned as intended in its first phase, even though the outcome for the infant was the worst possible one.
For the police, the remaining deliverable is clear. The units on the ground have secured a grave site, a witness in custody, and an open case docket covering kidnapping, rape and murder. What has not yet been delivered is the arrest of the pastor himself. Until that happens, the manhunt stays active, and the investigation, in the words of the provincial spokesperson, remains under way. Reporting by Musa Mhlongo.