ISIS gang who stabbed Brit couple to death & threw bodies zipped in sleeping bags to crocodiles found guilty of murder

ThesunJune 10, 2026Read original

AN ISIS-linked gang who brutally killed a British couple and threw their bodies to crocodiles have been found guilty of their savage murder.

Botanists Rod Saunders, 72, and wife Rachel, 63, were

whilst out searching for rare flowers in 2018.

The couple who had been together for over 30 years and lived in Cape Town were setting up camp when they were attacked.

A court heard how the pair were viciously tortured for Rachel’s bank details before being battered to death.

They were then stuffed in their sleeping bags and thrown off a bridge in Ngoye Forest National Park into crocodile-infested waters below.

Only 48 hours earlier, the botanic experts had been interviewed for a Gardeners World special on the

.

Shortly after parting ways with the wildlife documentary team, Rod and Rachel were savaged as they prepared camp for the night.

Durban High Court heard how gang ringleader Sayefundeen Del Vecchio, 44, had identified the married couple as a “good hunt”.

After carrying out the mindless killings, he texted his wife Bibi Patel, 34, and their lodger Mussa Jackson, 40, to say the “prey are in hellfire”.

Del Vecchio then told the pair to come and meet him in the Saunders’ stolen

Land Cruiser.

The court heard that when his wife and lodger arrived, Rod and Rachel were dead in the back of it.

A post-mortem revealed Rachel had been hacked several times on the back of her skull with a machete, and repeatedly stabbed in the upper back.

She had also been brutally battered with the same heavy blunt instrument believed to have been used to cave in Rod’s skull.

Del Vecchio then drove his victims to the Tugela River Bridge and threw them over the edge.

However, their unrecognisable bodies were later found washed up.

Their remains were reportedly in such a terrible state due to a combination of the violent attack, animals, and decomposition.

It took two pathologists using

and a dental expert to be able to identify them.

In the aftermath of the killings, the twisted trio went on

over two days.

They bought

and transferred what was left of the couple’s savings into their own bank accounts.

Their plan eventually fell apart when a suspicious shop assistant asked for proof one of them was Rod Saunders.

As the gang fled the store, the

were alerted – and were already searching for the elderly after they failed to keep regular check-ins.

After being taken into custody, the authorities found the gang were already on a terrorist warning list.

An elite South African police squad said they found the Saunders’ phones, jewellery, camping equipment, and stolen vehicle in their possession.

They also found an

flag flying in their garden and ISIS pamphlets and literature littered around their home.

When the suspects’ phones were analysed, WhatsApp messages reinforced fears they were members of the terror group

One message discussed how they must “kill the kuffar (non believer) and abduct their alias, to destroy infrastructure and to put fear in the heart of the kuffar”.

Judge Esther Steyn found all three guilty of double murder, kidnap, robbery and theft.

However, no terrorism-related charges were brought against the ISIS supporting trio.

The court only came to this decision after one collapsed trial and 160 days in court – involving 60 witnesses.

Judge Steyn said DNA evidence, cellphone data and phone usage linked all three “without doubt” to the murders.

Sentencing will take place on June 19, but under South African law they will face mandatory life sentences.

Speaking by video link a spokesman for the family said: “Still after so many years the incident itself and the aftermath causes distress to the family.

“It was an awful incident and we do not want to dwell on the event as it was dealt with in detail at the trial”.