Dr Nandipha Magudumana tried to smudge her fingerprints when she claimed Katlego Bereng Mpholo’s body from a Bloemfontein hospital, just days before her killer boyfriend Thabo Bester’s prison escape – but authorities still managed to confirm her identity.
Those smudged but discernible fingerprints would prove pivotal to the State finally being able to identify the body of the 32-year-old father, whose fingerprints were also captured on the form that Magudumana used to claim his body.
While home affairs was able to provide law enforcement with Bereng Mpholo’s name after receiving those fingerprints, the police also trawled through missing person dockets to establish whether he was likely to be the person found in Bester’s cell. After discovering that Bereng Mpholo had been reported missing in May 2022, the police asked his mother for a blood sample – and were then, finally, able to confirm his identity.