POSSIBLE GAY MURDER SPREE SUSPECT ARRESTED

A man has been arrested in connection with at least one of the murders of gay men in the last two years in Gauteng.

The Star’s Shain Germaner reported on Monday that a 29-year-old Soweto man was arrested on Friday in connection with the murder of Siphiwe Nhlapo (36).

Nhlapo is one of the eight men murdered in oddly similar circumstances in Gauteng over the past two years.

According to the Star’s sources, the man has confessed to being an accomplice in Nhlapo’s murder and in other crimes, although it remains unclear if these crimes may include any of the other murders.

The suspect, who was set to appear in court on Monday, has fingered another man as Nhlapo’s killer.

The police are looking for the man and more details about his identify may be released soon.

Nhlapo was bound and strangled in his Kliptown, Soweto flat in September last year. His murder was similar to those of seven other gay men.

These include Manolis Veloudos, who was killed in April 2010. He was followed by Jim Cathels in Berea in December 2010, Oscar O’Hara (33) in May 2011, a 47-year-old un-named landlord in Northcliff in August 2011, Barney van Heerden (39) in Orange Grove, also in September 2011, and HIV/Aids activist and television presenter Jason Wessenaar (39) in his Pretoria West home in December 2011.

Most recently, Rulov Senekal was killed in Braamfontein, Johannesburg on 25 February. Police have CCTV footage of two men leaving his apartment building with what appears to be some of his possessions.