Murdered one-year-old Orderick Lucas will be buried on Saturday, more than a month after his decomposing remains were found in a drain near his grandmother’s house.
The little boy, whose cause of death has not yet been released, was identified through DNA testing. His tiny body was discovered by children playing in the street, nine days after Orderick went missing on Sunday, March 24.
The drain where Orderick’s body was found. (Tammy Petersen, News24)
Melvin Volkwyn, a local hairdresser and Orderick’s mother Davedine Lucas’s friend, appeared in the Blue Downs Magistrate's Court on Friday on charges of murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice.
The 22-month-old had lived with his grandmother Cornelia Scheepers in Wittebol Street, Melton Rose, but had been in his mother's care at the time of his disappearance.
Lucas had asked Volkwyn to keep an eye on her son that day. She claimed Volkwyn had told her on Monday that he had returned the child to Scheepers.
Lucas said it was when she went to visit her little boy at her mother's house on Thursday March 28 that she discovered that he had never been returned.
Volkwyn was being held at the Mfuleni police station at the request of his attorney after being sexually harassed by prisoners at the Goodwood prison, it was previously revealed in court proceedings.
His bail application is expected to be heard on Tuesday.
After the case was postponed, Lucas said she it hurt her to see how many people supported Volkwyn, hoping for his release.
"He is charged with my son’s murder. He doesn’t deserve a fan club," she said.
Her child’s corpse was in too bad a condition to allow them to open his little coffin on Saturday.
"Do these people know that my child had no eyes left when he was found? That his face was covered in bruises and his little body was rotting away? How do they defend someone who is in court for such a crime? I hope he stays in jail."
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