Kidnapped, killed and fed crocodiles: the shocking story of botanists Rod and Rachel

Brutally killed and their bodies thrown to the crocodiles. That was the terrible end of Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, in a remote South African nature reserve in February 2018. The UK botanist couple spent six months of the year in the African country scouring mountains and forests. wild in search of rare seeds and other natural products for their thriving worldwide mail order business.

But on their last trip they were reportedly targeted by a gang of thugs: robbed, beaten to death, then placed in their own sleeping bags and then thrown into a crocodile-infested river. Their decomposing bodies, devoured by reptiles when they were pulled out of the water by fishermen several days later, were unrecognizable and were taken to a local morgue.

Just two months later, in April 2018, local authorities ordered unidentified or unclaimed bodies in local morgues to be DNA tested. It was then that Rod and Rachel were identified. The large-scale hunt for the Saunders’ killers has already led to four arrests: three of them were charged with murder, kidnapping, robbery and larceny.

Just days before they were brutally murdered, Rod and Rachel had just posed for a selfie with BBC presenter Nick Baily after filming a segment for the BBC television show ‘Gardeners’ World’ in which they explained that they had traveled to South Africa for Mountain Gladiolus Seeds in the Drakensberg area, before meeting its dramatic fate in the Ngoye Forest Reserve.

Police initially feared the suspects had ties to ISIS after discovering messages on their cell phones using terms terrorists often use, including the need to “kill the kuffar”. [non credenti], destroy infrastructure and strike fear into the hearts of the kuffar.” But prosecutors appear to rule out terrorism as a motive.

The process should continue for several weeks.