'Dumped' teen was not dead when we dropped him off: SAPS

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Kimberley – Nineteen-year-old Sydney Seekoei was unconscious but alive when members of the SAPS dropped him off at his parent’s house in Rietvale on Saturday evening. This is according to SAPS provincial spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Mashay Gamieldien, who said on Monday that police had found the youth passed out near a local tavern and had decided to take him home. This account of events is contrary to Seekoei’s mother, Rachel Seekoei, who said on Sunday that her dead son was dumped on her living room floor, frothing at the mouth and nose, by members of the SAPS. After police failed to respond to media enquiries on Sunday, Gamieldien eventually confirmed on Monday that police in Modderrivier were instigating an inquest case following the death of Seekoei on Saturday. “At approximately 10pm police members were patrolling the area near a local tavern where they discovered the deceased, who was alive but passed out,” Gamieldien said on Monday.

“The members took the deceased to his home where he was still alive at the time."

“At approximately midnight that same evening, paramedics reported at the Client Service Centre to inform the police that the deceased had passed away. Police investigations are continuing.”

However, on Sunday afternoon Seekoei’s mother shared a different version of events, saying that she became worried about her son’s whereabouts at around sunset on Saturday evening, when the 19-year-old was nowhere to be seen.

She explained that her son attended Jannie Brink School, having been diagnosed with epilepsy and attention deficit disorder and had also sustained permanent injuries in an accident in 2006, leaving him dependent on his family.

Rachel said that her concerns mounted as the hours went by but nothing could have prepared her for when she opened the door, at approximately 10pm that evening, to find two policeman carrying her son’s lifeless body.

According to the grieving mother, there were no visible injuries to her son’s body other than blood coming from his nose and mouth.

She said that when she questioned the police as to why he was soaking wet, she was offered no answers and was simply told by one of the officers to be grateful that they had brought him home.

Rachel added that it was clear that her son was already dead at the time and that his body was left on the living room floor of their house in Swan Street until the early hours of Sunday morning, when the body was collected by forensics.

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