- Sipho Thwala
Sipho Mandla Agmatir Thwala (born 1968) is a South African rapist and
serial killer who was convicted in 1999 for the murders of 16 women and 10 rapes and was sentenced to 506 years in prison. [ [http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/crime/serialkillers/phoenixstrangler/index.shtml Discovery Channel: Crimes and Forensics. "Crimes That Shook The World."] ] Thwala was known by the moniker "The Phoenix Strangler". [ [http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/crime/serialkillers/phoenixstrangler/index.shtml Discovery Channel: Crimes and Forensics. "Crimes That Shook The World."] ]Thwala, born and raised in
KwaMashu , began his year-long rape and murder spree in 1996 inKwaZulu-Natal province. [ [http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/serial2.html Serial Killer Hit List] ] His modus operandi was to lure local women into accompanying him through sugarcane fields of Mount Edgecombe near the town of Phoenix, South Africa with the promise of employment as domestic servants in hotels. [ [http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/crime/serialkillers/phoenixstrangler/index.shtml Discovery Channel: Crimes and Forensics. "Crimes That Shook The World."] ] Once the couple were deep within the cane fields, Thwala would attack the women, bind them with their own undergarmets, rape, strangle and bludgeon them. Afterwards, he would set fire to the cane fields in hopes of destroying any physical evidence of his attack. [ [http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/serial2.html Serial Killer Hit List] ]Sipho Thwala was arrested in 1997 after South African police matched
DNA found on the victims to DNA taken from Thwala in 1994 when he was arrested and acquitted of a rape. [ [http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/crime/serialkillers/phoenixstrangler/index.shtml Discovery Channel: Crimes and Forensics. "Crimes That Shook The World."] ]On
March 31 ,1999 , the Durban, South Africa High Court found Sipho Thwala guilty of 16 murders and 10 rapes, and sentenced to 506 years in prison. [ [http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/serial2.html Serial Killer Hit List] ]References
Further reading
* Newton, Michael. "The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers". Checkmark Books. 2000. ISBN 0-816-03979-8
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