Lekita Moore: Mutilated body of 18-year-old found in Cape Town
Social media users around the world are calling for justice to be done in the tragic case of a 18-year-old African girl whose badly mutilated body was found in a field in Cape Town, South Africa on September 11, 2016.
Friends of Lekita Moore say she was killed by a man "in a jealous rage," according international media reports, including SA Breaking News, a media outlet in South Africa.
The case has generated considerable outrage in the community, with many parents forbidding their youth to go out in the streets, and many children afraid.
Resident Washiela Arendse told EyeWitness News, an international news outlet, that, “The children are very emotional; they are also fearing because you can see the streets are empty in the evening (sic). Lekita was a child – when she passed you she would always greet you. She was a very soft person, and I am very emotional.”
The case is based on several eyewitness reports, one of them being a young woman who said she was wit Lekita when she was assaulted among a group of youths who gathered at a karaoke bar. The young woman, who is not being identified in the press, said that 19-year-old Cameron Wilson beat Lekita "until her nose bled," she told news media.
Wilson, under heavy security, had a court appearance this week, but is not due back in court until October 11.
“We were at the karaoke and they were together,” the young woman said.
“Hy het haar neus aan die bloei geslaan (He gave her a bloody nose). He was jealous about something. At one point she told us not to go to the toilet alone, not just because of him (Wilson) but because of the other gangsters who were also there,” she added.
But what has shocked much of the world is the brutality of the murder, which was reported in graphic detail to raise awareness: When investigators found Lekita's body the next morning it had been multiple stab wounds, including cuts in her stomach and throat. One of her nipples had been slashed off, as was part of her genitals.
On social media, many are using the hashtag #JusticeForLekita to raise awareness of the heinous crime.
Back in Cape Town, Lekita's parents Charles, 53, and Shireen Moore, 49, told local media that the suspect shouldn't be released on bond under any circumstances.
“He must stay where he is and not get bail. He must die in there. What he did to my child he’ll do to another child," her father said. "Bring the noose, hang him!"
He said that he has been unable to sleep since his daughter was killed. "It’s hard for me. She was the apple of my eye and she was my baby," Charles Moore told EyeWitness News.
