Images of a man fleeing from the building where Irish national John Curran was found murdered in cold blood earlier this month have been circulated by police. Curran, who was 60 years old at the time of his death, was discovered in a pool of blood by someone who is alleged to have been his girlfriend.
Neighbour, Dragan Kuruzovic, tweeted at the time: “I woke up this morning at like 9am with a woman outside my room SCREAMING: ‘Oh my god, my boyfriend is dead’ about 10 times. Then the screams went ‘There’s blood all over the place’. I heard people running and freaking out, etc. Doors slamming. I called my neighbour … He went in the place the moment the girl screamed and saw the full-on dead body and blood all over. Says it was definitely murder.”
Curran was a well-respected member of Cape Town’s non-profit community, and had been working as the Director of Mellon Educate.
At the time of the murder – 7 November – it was alleged that authorities were in possession of CCTV footage of a suspect fleeing the scene, but had remained tight-lipped at the time.
“The victim had open wounds [on] his head and face. Circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation with no arrests so far,” Captain FC Van Wyk of South African Police Services (SAPS) said in response to recent queries. “Police detectives are following up on possible leads. The finer aspects of our investigation cannot be disclosed at this stage.”
During an interview on CapeTalk, Western Cape MEC for Economic Opportunities Alan Winde said that Curran’s death was only one of several unfortunate incidents that have recently unfolded across the province. “I met with Western Cape police commissioner, Luitenant-General Khombinkosi Jula, and I said to him we need to do something, we’ve got to tackle this differently and… we have to talk about a plan [to make this the] safest province on the continent,” he said.
Western Cape MEC for Education, Debbie Schäfer, commented on the needlessness of Curran’s death. “He is an educationist from Ireland and the sad thing is that he was on a contract which had just ended and … was about to go home at the end of the year. This is really [a] sad senseless killing,” she said.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the above suspect is kindly urged to contact Detective Warrant Officer Shaun Bardien on 021 467 6320/021 467 8001/073 220 0653.
Alternatively, Crime Stop can be contacted on 08600 10111.
READ: Irish man found murdered in CBD apartment
Picture: Supplied