Former South African policewoman killed relatives and boyfriend for insurance money

Former South African policewoman Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu was found guilty of killing five relatives and her boyfriend at the end of a trial that gripped the country.

The six were murdered between 2012 and 2018, most with the help of a hit man, so she profited from life insurance payments.

The 46-year-old was finally caught after someone she hired to kill her sister turned to the police.

She should be sentenced next month.

Ndlovu was also found guilty of the attempted murder of her mother, Maria Mushwana, as well as of insurance fraud after pocketing an estimated rand 1.4 million ($ 95,000; £ 69,000).

Over the course of the three-month trial, the prosecution revealed how he systematically arranged life insurance and a funeral for his relatives and then had them killed.

The first person to be killed was her cousin, the witness Madala Homu, in March 2012. Then her sister, boyfriend, niece and two nieces were killed.

His latest victim, Brilliant Mashego, died in January 2018.

In most cases he hired hitmen to carry out the murders, but in 2013 he poisoned and strangled his sister Audrey Somisa Ndlovu herself.

The series of murders ended after she approached someone to kill another sister and her sister’s five children in March 2018.

The man she hired informed the police who then arranged a puncture operation to record her talking about the plans, the Times Live news site report.

Ndlovu was heard about how he wanted the six to be burned alive at home saying he needed the money, Times Live says.

During the trial, Ndlovu claimed his innocence, accusing many of the 50 state witnesses of lying.

But the prosecution produced evidence to show how she had been with most of her victims before their deaths and how she benefited from them afterwards.

“The defendant was the last person to see them alive or the first to notice that they were missing,” state attorney Riana Williams said, quoted by the AFP news agency.

“She proclaimed herself a beneficiary to collect the life and funeral coverages.”