Two tourists found murdered in Kruger National Park

konfab said:
Think about the logistics.

1) Isolated people, likely without cellphone signal
2) Within a stone's throw of Mozambique border, and conveniently located in a cross-border park, in other words, zero border control. View attachment 1910559
3) They provide a nice off-road capable getaway vehicle.

4) It isn't in a random place either, it likely was at the picnic site. People are not on their guard for orcs when they go to the Kruger. So you catch people who are genuinely off guard.
Click to expand...

So the place is called crooks corner because it used to be an exit route for criminals (waaay back when).
It was so dangerous that they said if you could cross then you deserved to be free.
Swimming across with hippo's and croc's is a brave choice. Depending on the time of year its possible.
The other thing is the terrain, the roads are fine but off road is pretty wild. Not only would you need a proper 4x4 vehicle but also you would need to know how to use it and then know a path away from the road.
There are also mountains on the Mozam side...
 
Nerfherder said:
So the place is called crooks corner because it used to be an exit route for criminals (waaay back when).
It was so dangerous that they said if you could cross then you deserved to be free.
Swimming across with hippo's and croc's is a brave choice. Depending on the time of year its possible.
The other thing is the terrain, the roads are fine but off road is pretty wild. Not only would you need a proper 4x4 vehicle but also you would need to know how to use it and then know a path away from the road.
There are also mountains on the Mozam side...
Click to expand...
Looking on Google Earth it doesn't look particularly challenging to get get onto some track and then cross the border a bit lower down and meet up with a road on the Moz side.
 
Nerfherder said:
So the place is called crooks corner because it used to be an exit route for criminals (waaay back when).
It was so dangerous that they said if you could cross then you deserved to be free.
Swimming across with hippo's and croc's is a brave choice. Depending on the time of year its possible.
The other thing is the terrain, the roads are fine but off road is pretty wild. Not only would you need a proper 4x4 vehicle but also you would need to know how to use it and then know a path away from the road.
There are also mountains on the Mozam side...
Click to expand...
Who said anything about crossing the river?

I can guarantee you they went into Moz. They likely went on park roads, then took an off before the border post to get to the service road to the border.
1779721759333.png

If you have a look at that direction. Any reasonable 4x4 could go there,
1779721873201.png

Once you hit that service road, just ram the fence and you are over the border into Moz.
 
Louw said law enforcement officials in KNP confirmed that gate security cameras showed the missing car did not exit through any of the nine access gates or the two international border posts into Mozambique.

“In the vicinity of the crime scene, KNP rangers followed what they believed to be the tyre tracks of the missing vehicle.

“The tracks point to a vehicle driven through the bush over the fence and into Mozambique. ”

Late on Sunday, the SABC reported that KNP spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said preliminary investigations confirmed the vehicle belonging to the deceased couple exited the country through the Mozambican fence.
Click to expand...


https://www.citizen.co.za/news/is-kruger-park-safe-fear-rises-after-murder-of-tourists/

Evidently the crooks that crook's corner were named after didn't have a Ford Ranger that could make relatively little work of the brambles and border fence.
 
konfab said:
Who said anything about crossing the river?

I can guarantee you they went into Moz. They likely went on park roads, then took an off before the border post to get to the service road to the border.
View attachment 1910612

If you have a look at that direction. Any reasonable 4x4 could go there,
View attachment 1910615

Once you hit that service road, just ram the fence and you are over the border into Moz.
Click to expand...
Well in this google maps pic it shows water, but most of these rivers are normally quite dry and you can cross them with a car.
But like you said why bother.
You can drive a few hundred meters through the bush from Crooks corner and cut the fence and you in Moz. Then you don;t have to drive too far or cross rivers before you will get a local Moz road and skipped any border posts.
1779728129742.png
 
October the 3th 2022, just outside Numbi gate. I have warned Germans and Romanians (yes, I am a mix breed) of entering KNP thru gates near settlements and some went so far as saying I was a racist... October the 3th was my vindication date - won't forget that date easily
Luckily nowadays we Europeans are more "streetwise" when it comes to visiting Africa. After all, as of 2026 we have over 10 million sub Saharans in the EU
 
konfab said:
Who said anything about crossing the river?

I can guarantee you they went into Moz. They likely went on park roads, then took an off before the border post to get to the service road to the border.
View attachment 1910612

If you have a look at that direction. Any reasonable 4x4 could go there,
View attachment 1910615

Once you hit that service road, just ram the fence and you are over the border into Moz.
Click to expand...
Was suggested earlier that they crossed the river... I also think that that is the least likely possibility.

I was last there more than 10 years ago but from what I can remember the Mozam border is outlined by a rocky ridge. There must be places where you can pass but you really do need to know the terrain.

So yes, poachers, probably got stranded and needed a way back. Decided to take the most brutal option.
 
RomTuringia said:
October the 3th 2022, just outside Numbi gate. I have warned Germans and Romanians (yes, I am a mix breed) of entering KNP thru gates near settlements and some went so far as saying I was a racist... October the 3th was my vindication date - won't forget that date easily
Luckily nowadays we Europeans are more "streetwise" when it comes to visiting Africa. After all, as of 2026 we have over 10 million sub Saharans in the EU
Click to expand...
Probably try with a bit less glee next time.

Its not actually a good thing to be vindicated like that.
 
ghaye said:
Looking on Google Earth it doesn't look particularly challenging to get get onto some track and then cross the border a bit lower down and meet up with a road on the Moz side.
Click to expand...
I said the exact same thing to my wife once right before we got horribly stuck.

Was like a 6 hour detour in the end.
 
Man this world is sick. There is now a video going around showing their bodies floating in the river. Luckily they did not have kids that could see it, but still rest of family/friends can.
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
Man this world is sick. There is now a video going around showing their bodies floating in the river. Luckily they did not have kids that could see it, but still rest of family/friends can.
Click to expand...
Correct. While I do feel sorry for their friends and families, when it comes to crime awareness, gruesome scenes are good. They have a better chance of going viral and increasing awareness! I used this tactic in the past and I prevented more crime than in my 33 years in the police . Welcome to the 21st Century
 
Nerfherder said:
I said the exact same thing to my wife once right before we got horribly stuck.

Was like a 6 hour detour in the end.
Click to expand...
I have crossed the Limpopo from Pafuri to Dumela in Moz then up the Moz/Zim border to Sango, then back without incident (not counting some small unofficial payments to "officials") but we did see a LR Discovery get properly stuck in the slippery mud on the northern river bank, village there, plenty to push for money. Easy enough in October, with a guide for the river crossing and careful following of T4A maps. If the criminals were from Moz they probably knew the area well.
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
Man this world is sick. There is now a video going around showing their bodies floating in the river. Luckily they did not have kids that could see it, but still rest of family/friends can.
Click to expand...
Its savage and fetishsises the crime. Further fuels the rubbernecking culture we have here (Yes I know we are doing the same thing here on this thread).

It also causes us to hyperfocus on something that was most likely just a rare event... and forget about other crime that is daily.
They will end up closing Crooks Corner to the public and add patrols for a while as a reactionary measure... only because there is no simple solution.
 
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