Johannesburg Jane Doe was a woman who was found in the city of Johannesburg on 9 October 1995. She is the 35th victim to be connected to Moses Sithole, AKA The ABC Killer, as well as his 9th unidentified victim.
Case[]
Starting on 3 October 1995, a man who used the name Joseph Magwena called the office of the newspaper The Star and spoke with a reporter named Tasmen de Beer. Over the course of four phone calls, Magwena claimed he was the serial killer who had been responsible for a string of murders that were occurring in the Gauteng Province and provided his motives for the killings and intricate details proving his involvement in the murders. Additionally, he provided police with directions to a victim that was undiscovered by authorities. Per his directions, the victim's body was discovered near the Jupiter train station near the industrial Denver suburb of Johannesburg.
In October 1995, a man named Moses Sithole was arrested after being publicly sought as the prime suspect in the case since August 1995. After his arrest, he was determined to be responsible for the sexual assault and murder of 37 women and one male toddler between July 1994 and November 1995 across the Gauteng Province. He had lured his victims by enticing them for job interviews at a shell company he owned. He would then take them to remote fields and then assault and kill them. More than ten of his victims remain unidentified. No descriptions of the unidentified victims are currently available, except that they were young to middle-aged black women, and they have since been buried in pauper's graves.
It should be noted that Sithole's list of victims includes victims initially thought to have been committed by another man named David Selepe. Selepe was suspected of being behind the initial murder spree based on his oral confession and his fitting the psychological profile of the killer. Selepe was shot in self-defense by the police on 18 December 1994 while leading them to where he buried the body of a victim. The relationship between the two, if any, remains unknown.
Sithole was convicted of 38 charges of murder, 40 charges of rape, and six robberies. He was sentenced to 2,410 consecutive years and is currently incarcerated at the Mangaung Correctional Centre.