Murder probe opened after St Stithians pupil’s death

Johannesburg teenager Cameron Waldeck-Cooks was on a hiking trip in the Sabie district in Mpumalanga with two families on the weekend she died. The sporty 17-year-old grade 11 pupil at St Stithians Girls’ College in Johannesburg was working towards the gold level of The President’s Award for Youth Empowerment, the South African implementation of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. “As part of the programme, she was preparing to complete a multi-day adventurous journey.

“When she was invited to join two families on a hiking trip in Sabie, she saw it as an opportunity to work towards that goal.” Her parents were notified on Monday morning that she had been found deceased. “We appointed an independent forensic pathologist who has advised us his preliminary findings indicate Cameron died as a result of strangulation and suffocation. Police have confirmed they have opened a murder investigation.