WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-03-15 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
By Babington Maravanyika and Lynette Johns
A couple’s agonising four-day wait for the return of their son from the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour, after which he went missing on Sunday, ended with the terrible news that he had been found murdered in Cape Town.
Allan Espitalier’s body was found dumped in a canal in Athlone on Monday afternoon. It was wrapped in a sleeping bag but police only identified the body and informed his parents three days later.
His mother, Lynn Espitalier, had made an appeal through the media on Tuesday but the family was only informed on Thursday that he had been killed.
| ‘I just thought he had had too much drink’ |
On Friday police were unable to say why it had taken three days to inform his family.
Allan Espitalier, 25, and his parents, Lynn and Terry, had travelled to Cape Town from Amanzimtoti last week for the Cycle Tour.
Lynn said she and Allan had been waiting together for her husband Terry at the finishing line when Allan had walked away. The last time she saw him was around 6.15pm. She had assumed he would come back shortly.
Lynn said it became foggy and cold and she and her husband went back to their guesthouse in Beach Road, hoping their son would join them later.
When he did not turn up for dinner, the couple did not worry as they believed he was having a “nice time” with friends somewhere in the city.
| ‘This is a terrible blow’ |
Lynn later phoned her son to remind him that they were leaving for Durban at 6am on Monday but got his voicemail.
He was not in his room the next morning.
“I just thought he had had too much drink, and was actually angry with him since we were due to leave for Durban at about 6am,” Lynn said.
She phoned him but again got voicemail.
Some friends offered to give Allan a lift to Durban when he returned. Lynn and Terry left Cape Town at around 7am on Monday after telling the owner of the guesthouse that Allan should phone them on arrival.
“When he had not phoned by that afternoon, we started getting worried, and on Tuesday morning, we decided to stop in Harrismith to file a missing person report,” Lynn said.
On Wednesday, Lynn went to a police station in Amanzimtoti to fill in new forms after being informed that the earlier forms were not the right ones.
Just after 10am on Thursday, police delivered the shattering news that Allan’s body had been found in Athlone.
Terry, who flew to Cape Town on Friday morning, said he was expecting results of his son’s post mortem on Saturday.
Cycle Tour organiser Dave Bellairs said Allan’s death was tragic, especially for a city which relied heavily on tourism.
“This is a terrible blow and it is just not something we want happening, not only around the Cycle Tour but at any time in our city.”
No arrests had been made by Friday night.