Police believe a serial killer may be striking in East London’s West Bank industrial area after a severed head was found next to a factory on Tuesday. It was the eighth set of remains discovered in the area in the last year – six of them in the last six months.

The head of an unknown woman was found close to a footpath through dense bush near the Mercedes-Benz South Africa plant in Nuffield Road. Police were combing the whole area near the harbor, but could not locate the missing torso. The unknown woman was said to be the third murder this month alone near a footpath frequently used by pedestrians walking from the East London CBD, Duncan Village and Parkside to West Bank factories.

The grisly discovery comes days after the badly decomposed body of a woman was found by two teenagers hunting in the area on Saturday. The body was so badly decomposed that it could not be identified, said East London police spokesperson Lieutenant Mtati Tana. And 12 days earlier another woman’s body was found in the same area. She was half naked. It was suspected she could have been raped before being killed. An autopsy is still to determine the cause of her death.

Tana also told the Dispatch that more bodies had been found in the same spot in January this year, and in October, November and on two other unspecified dates last year. None of the victims had yet been identified.

Even though the circumstances were similar, police did not want to link the killings to the possible actions of a serial killer, but it is believed they were considering bringing in an expert investigator to look into the matter. “At this stage, we can’t say this is the work of a serial murderer as we are busy investigating,” Mills said. “If there is a need for us to call an expert we will do that but for now our local guys are busy with the matter.”

Police said no arrests had been made.

-article by Bongani Fuzile rewritten and adapted by admin-