Excavation continues on KZN beach in search of Gert Van Rooyen's victims

Van Rooyen and his partner, Francina Harhoff are believed to have kidnapped and murdered at least six girls who disappeared nearly three decades ago. 

In early 1990, Van Rooyen shot Harhoff before turning the gun on himself after one of his victims, who had managed to escape, told police she'd been drugged and sexually assaulted over several days by the couple. 

Yesterday, forensic investigators began digging at Blythedale Beach while some of the victims' families watched on and waited for possible closure.

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Editor at the Zululand Observer, Dave Savides was at the beach yesterday on the first day of the excavation and explains what happened.

"The police had availed themselves of the use of machinery from the municipality - they had been informed that a body or bodies might be buried next to the pipeline that goes to the sea off the beach. So, they were excavating along the pipeline," he said. 

Savides, who's been tracking the story for 25 years, recalls some of the early investigations into the case.

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"Initially when the girls went missing - there was talk that one of them had made a phonecall from the North Coast. This then honed to St. Lucia where there were a number of police efforts in search of a house there and they brought in forensics and sniffer dogs. All the investigations came to nothing. There was also a lot of talk that people higher up in the chain of command were blocking the investigation," he said.       

Savides also spoke to the family of one of the missing girls.

Police are currently not commenting on the excavation. 

Listen to an extended interview with Dave Savides below on yesterday's excavation and the case in general.