South African police create mock murder scene with fake blood, then make real life arrests

October 30, 2015 News Room

By Christopher Torchia

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOHANNESBURG _ South African police said it was like a Hollywood movie.

Police duped a businessman who allegedly wanted to kill his business partner, using photographs of a mock murder scene to convince an accomplice of the businessman that the target of their plot had been killed, police Brig. Hangwani Mulaudzi said Friday.

The accomplice then paid $720 to an undercover policeman who was posing as the hitman and had shown the photographs, police said. The business partner participated in the ruse, agreeing to have fake blood put on him before the photo shoot.

“It’s like a Hollywood movie,” Mulaudzi said.

The accused businessman, who wanted to kill his partner so he could be the sole beneficiary of a $2.5 million insurance policy, and his conspirator were arrested and face charges including conspiracy to commit murder, according to the police. A police statement about the case did not name the men.

Police said the businessman from the coastal city of Durban had previously tried to kill his partner, dispatching two men in July to follow the partner to his home, where he was shot several times in what appeared to be a failed carjacking. The partner survived.