Missing Cradock girls found 1,000km away near Pretoria

A nationwide search for two Cradock children, allegedly kidnapped by their biological parents, has yielded positive results with the young sisters found just under 1,000km away from their home.

Police confirmed to The Herald that the children had been found unharmed at a shelter in Hamanskraal on Monday.

Sunick Ferreira, 12, and Ashley Olivier, 5, were reported missing by their grandfather — who is also their legal guardian — on Friday evening, after they failed to return home from a scheduled visit to their parents’ home in Cradock earlier that day.

A social worker had dropped the girls, who are biological sisters despite having different surnames, at their parental home on Friday for a scheduled visit with their parents, Marius and Tasha Ferreira.

On Monday morning, the SAPS Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit in Cradock said they were following up on a strong lead.

By that evening, the girls had been placed in police care and the parents arrested.

“The children have been found in Pretoria and the parents are being held at Themba Police Station in Hamanskraal,”  investigating officer Detective Constable Sibongile Ngesi said.

“After we had posted on social media someone contacted the police to say that they had seen the girls with their parents at their shelter.

“The children are back in the care of their grandfather and should be on their way or arriving in Cradock as we speak,” he said.

Ngesi said police would like to thank the members of the public for assisting them throughout the entire investigation.

“They [the public] have helped us return the girls unharmed, which also led to the arrest of the parents.

“May they [continue to] do what they have done for the young girls of other families,” he said.

The parents are expected to appear in the Themba Magistrate's Court on charges relating to kidnapping and contravention of a court order on Wednesday.