Overview
- Other tourists found the bodies near a river in the park’s northern Pafuri/Limpopo border area on Friday, and the victims were last seen days earlier at the Pafuri picnic site.
- Limpopo police say the victims—a 71-year-old man and a woman whose identities and nationalities have not been released—had severe stab or cut wounds to the upper body.
- The pair’s vehicle is missing from the scene and authorities have launched formal murder and abduction investigations plus a large search for suspects with no arrests reported so far.
- Investigators are considering that the victims may have encountered poachers or cross-border smugglers because the bodies were found close to the Crook’s Corner border zone and the vehicle was taken.
- Kruger officials called the crime unprecedented inside the reserve and park authorities are helping next of kin while the case raises immediate questions about visitor safety and potential impacts on tourism to one of Africa’s busiest parks.