'Facebook rapist' killer who faked fiery prison death to escape arrested, returned to South Africa

Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY
Updated ·3 min read
10

A killer dubbed the 'Facebook Rapist' who escaped prison by faking his own fiery death with help from guards was brought back to South Africa Thursday after going on the run with his girlfriend.

Convicted sex offender and murderer Thabo Bester, on the lam since last spring, was arrested in Tanzania last weekend, local officials said. He was at large for a year after it was thought he died by setting himself on fire in his prison cell.

A manhunt for Bester, one of the country's most-wanted fugitives, was launched last month after a new post-mortem investigation revealed the body was not actually his, BBC reported.

State broadcaster SABC showed video of Bester being driven from Johannesburg's Lanseria Airport in a police vehicle with bars across the windows. Heavily-armed police put the girlfriend, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, into a separate white van at the airport.

She is expected to be charged with murder as part of the elaborate jailbreak plot from Mangaung Correctional Centre in Free State province.

Nandipha Magudumana in the dock at the Magistrates Court in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Thursday, April 13, 2023. Magudumana is the girlfriend of Thabo Bester, a man serving a life sentence for murder and rape and who escaped from a top-security prison with help from guards by faking his own burning death, was bought back to South Africa early Thursday after going on the run with Magudumana.

A body, a blaze and a breakout

During the escape, officials said, someone moved a body into the prison where Bester was housed to help him stage his own death in the May 3, 2022 fire.

Magudumana's father as well as a prison guard had already been charged with homicide in connection to the case after the body of a man was found burned beyond recognition in the cell. The victim, police said, died of blunt force trauma to the head before the fire.

As of Friday, the victim had not been identified by authorities

Local police and officials from South Africa's Ministry of Justice could not immediately be reached by USA TODAY Friday, but confirmed online the fugitives' deportations and said more arrests were expected.

"Bester has been readmitted into the Kgosi Mampuru Central Maximum correctional facility and Dr. Nandipha Magudumana is under arrest, pending her first court appearance," the ministry wrote. "We are grateful to all the role players seized with this matter thus far, this includes state agencies and members of the public who have shared information that has assisted in the detention of the two fugitives, following an extensive man hunt."

'Facebook rapist'

Dubbed the 'Facebook rapist', Bester was sentenced to life in prison in 2012.

According to police, Bester used the social media site to lure his victims to meetings. He was found guilty of murder for stabbing his girlfriend, a model, to death in 2011 and raping two other female models.

After his escape, Bester was formally declared dead by suicide.

But details were only made public and pieced together in the past three weeks.

Prison security failures

This week, local lawmakers held an hours-long parliamentary hearing regarding security failures in the breakout. They questioned senior officials from the prison and British private security company G4S which runs the facility.

So far at least three prison employees have been fired due to suspicion they helped Bester escape amid the confusion of the predawn blaze.

Thabo Bester is seen on a TV camera screen in the Western Cape High Court, in Cape Town, South Africa Thursday, May 3, 2012, where he appeared in connection with murder. The South African convicted murderer who faked his death to escape from prison has been arrested in Tanzania following a two-week manhunt, police have announced. South African officials are going to Tanzania Sunday April 9, 2023, to begin to extradite Thabo Bester.

The prison and its security company conceded under questioning that a TV cabinet big enough to possibly hide a dead body was brought into the prison in an unauthorized vehicle hours before Bester broke out, around 4 a.m. the following day.

Officials said the cabinet and the vehicle were not searched.

They also said top prison officials gave Bester permission to be transferred to a single-occupant cell three days before his escape. The cell was situated next to a fire exit he’s believed to have used to flee.

Contributing: Gerald Imray and Mogomotsi Magome with The Associated Press.

Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thabo Bester who faked death to escape prison returned to South Africa