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  "path": "/news/world/south-africa-rod-rachel-saunders-isis-crocodiles",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-11T05:36:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Sickening true scale of Hamas's 'sexual terrorism' during October 7 massacre is revealed",
    "‘At least 24’ people killed by suicide bomber targeting train in Pakistan",
    "Defiant Christian town avoids destruction by standing up to Islamist terrorists",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nAn Isis-linked South African gang who violently killed a British couple before feeding their bodies to crocodiles have been found guilty of their murder.\n\nRod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, were world-renowned botanists searching for rare gladioli flowers in remote mountains.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nA court heard how the couple, who were married for 30 years, were ambushed by Muslim convert Sayefundeen Del Vecchio, 44 in 2018.\n\nActing alone, he tortured the couple for Rachel's Pin and bank account details before being hacked, stabbed and battered to death.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\nJust 48 hours earlier, the Saunderses, who lived in Cape Town, were being interviewed for the BBC's Gardeners' World in the Drakensberg Mountains, in an episode which aired two years after their passing.\n\nThe BBC wildlife documentary crew and horticulturalists were attacked as they were preparing to pitch camp.\n\nDel Vecchio texted his wife, Italian-born Bibi Patel, 34 and fellow Muslim convert and lodger Mussa Jackson, 40, the \"prey are in hellfire\" after killing them, the court heard.\n\nHe told the pair to meet him in a stolen Toyota Land Cruiser, with the couple's bodies put in sleeping bags and thrown in the back.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nPost-mortems revealed Rachel was hacked multiple times to the back of her skull with a machete-like heavy blade and stabbed repeatedly in the upper back.\n\nRod had his skull caved in with same weapon that killed Rachel.\n\nThe three then drove to the Tugela River Bridge and threw the bodies to be eaten by crocodiles, but their remains were later washed up in an unrecognisable state.\n\nTwo pathologists using DNA, alongside a dental expert, finally identified the couple.\n\n### LATEST AROUND THE WORLD:\n\n\n\n\n  * Sickening true scale of Hamas's 'sexual terrorism' during October 7 massacre is revealed\n  * ‘At least 24’ people killed by suicide bomber targeting train in Pakistan\n  * Defiant Christian town avoids destruction by standing up to Islamist terrorists\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe court heard how the gang of three were caught by greed, having spent £37,000 on Rachel's credit card in just two days, purchasing Bitcoin and sending the couple's savings into their own bank accounts.\n\nSouth African police unit the Hawks traced the credit card to the gang, who were already on a terror watchlist.\n\nThe couple's phones were found, as well as jewellery, camping equipment, laptops, and the bloodstained Toyota.\n\nJudge Esther Steyn found all three guilty of double murder, kidnap, robbery and theft during the case, which took 160 days and heard 60 witnesses.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nOn February 10, Del Vecchio texted his accomplices: \"Kill the kuffar (non believers). When the brothers go out and do this work it is very important that the bodies of the victims are never found.\"\n\nJackson confessed he saw the bodies of Rod and Rachel Saunders, but later denied it - claiming it had been forced out of him by police.\n\nSouth African police also found an Isis flag, pamphlets and literature in the house as they raided Del Vecchio's home, but no terror related charges were filed against the trio.\n\nSentencing has been delayed until June 19 but the trio face a mandatory life sentence, with a minimum of 15 years.\n\nA spokesman for the Saunders family told the court: \"Still after so many years the incident itself and the aftermath causes distress to the family.\n\n\"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.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "British couple murdered by Isis-linked South African gang who fed their bodies to crocodiles"
}