THE BITTER TRUTH

THE family of 16-year-old Chanelle Plaatjies have been left devastated after learning that it was indeed her body that was found in a shallow grave in Paarl East last week.

- BY MANDILAKHE TSHWETE

They have asked for space to mourn the teenager after DNA tests confirmed the gruesome find on 2 June near to where her sisters stumbled upon one of her shoes in a wooded area about a kilometre from their house was her.

Chanelle was last seen on 14 May but was only reported missing two weeks later on May 28.

The delay in reporting, the family says, was due to the hope that she would return home, as she usually did when she went out with friends.

The breakthrough in the search came when her sisters found one of her shoes in the bos close to their Smarty Town home.

It was this discovery that led to the unearthing of a body believed to be that of a young woman.