Ghost Mountain: part three - The network

Summary

The Story — Ghost Mountain: Part Three – The Network

Date: June 14, 2026
Host: Jane Flanagan (for The Times and Sunday Times)

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Episode Overview

This gripping final installment of the "Ghost Mountain" series investigates the disappearance of British tourist Lorna McSorley near Makuze, South Africa, and uncovers the shadowy networks behind a series of abductions and muti (ritualistic) murders. Host Jane Flanagan explores the complex interplay of superstition, organized crime, and systemic corruption that has led to fear and inertia among local police and the community. Using cutting-edge investigative tools and local testimony, Jane pieces together what may have happened to Lorna, unveiling a chilling trade in human body parts and highlighting the broader societal dysfunctions that obstruct justice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Atmosphere of Fear and the Role of Superstition

• In the wake of Lorna McSorley's disappearance and at least nine other local missing persons cases—many found mutilated—religious and cleansing ceremonies have proliferated, reflecting fear and heightened superstition in Makuze.
  • [01:33] Special mention of a town-wide cleansing ceremony replacing normal church services.
• Locals express fear for their own safety:
  • [03:13] Francois Nell: “Now we're not able to go out at night because you never know when you're going to be go missing yourself.”

2. Muti Killings and the Human Body Parts Trade

• Flanagan challenges the supernatural narrative, instead pointing to a real market for human body parts used in “dark muti”—a form of traditional medicine sometimes involving ritualistic killings.
  • [03:22] Jane Flanagan: “…it’s not spirits or witchcraft… but likely a real trade in human body parts sold to be used as… dark muti…”
  • Police inaction and public frustration dominate.

3. Breakthrough in the Investigation — Phone Data and Predictive Intelligence

• [05:23] Francois Nell, head of farm security, recovers evidence via a “data dump”: four phones active in the area around the time of Lorna’s disappearance.
• Flanagan travels to Pretoria to consult with Santi Duga, CEO of the predictive intelligence firm Topic Works.
  • [06:45] Santi Duga: “What we do is predictive intelligence and investigators.”
  • Duga’s team compiles a “movement analysis” using satellite data.
  • [08:20] Santi Duga: “It was quite easy because there’s not a lot of movement supposed to be in that area…”
• Topic Works’ findings:
  • Two unknown individuals lingered around the property during Lorna’s walk ([09:00]).
  • Suspicious nighttime movements to a remote property near water—significant in muti rituals ([09:40]).
  • Social media links tied at least one phone number to a muti shop and large cash transactions.
  • [10:42] Santi Duga: “This could be linked to muti murders.”

4. Systemic Failures: Police Inaction & Corruption

• Evidence, including the phone data, was given to the police, but detectives denied its existence ([12:56] Flanagan). The case remains classified as a missing person rather than a probable homicide.
  • [13:38] David Klatso (Forensic Scientist): “Forensic evidence is unlike wine in this respect. It doesn’t improve with age.”
  • [14:43] David Klatso: “No. It should by now be a murder case.”
• Klatso and others criticize the lack of follow-up, recommend “boots on the ground,” undercover stings, and tracking bank accounts.
  • [15:23] David Klatso: “Doing absolutely nothing is the very worst thing you can do. That’s what our police are doing.”

5. The Silencing Effect of Fear

• Community members, including local police forum chair Bongani Matendwa (Makuze), describe widespread fear and underreporting of suspected muti-related disappearances.
  • [20:17] Bongani Matendwa: “We are living in fear now…we don’t know the culprit…we want…closure.”
  • [21:28] Community members are reluctant to report cases or provide complete information: “They are afraid that maybe those culprits will kill…”
• Even local officials privately believe in the power of muti and struggle to rationalize the cases to outsiders ([22:03]).

6. Intersection with Organized Crime and Poaching Gangs

• Francois Nell explains how the trade in animal parts (rhino horn, monkey hands, python skins) for muti is closely linked to organized criminal networks—gangs comfortable with violence and deeply embedded within local society and officialdom.
  • [24:54] Francois Nell: “Poaching is just one of the problems…monkeys hands…python skins…where does it go to? To the muti market…It’s not a small industry.”

7. Customers for “Strong Muti”: Politicians and Criminals

• [26:54] Ian Cameron (MP, Police Portfolio Committee): Muti involving human body parts is not just a rural phenomenon. Clients are often powerful: urban politicians, ambitious leaders, hardened criminals.
  • [28:41] Ian Cameron: “It’s all of the above…politicians…criminals.”
• Describes how criminals ritualistically prepare for crimes like cash-in-transit heists.
  • [29:41] Cameron recounts entering a crime scene where a gang slaughtered by police had just performed a muti ritual.

8. Cultural and Political Challenges

• Muti is a Zulu word for “medicine” and remains a respected tradition at all levels—including the ruling African National Congress (ANC), who conducted a non-violent cleansing at their headquarters ([30:32]).
  • [31:09] Ian Cameron: “There are parties…that are scared of being exposed…they are very careful of speaking out.”
• Some traditional healers denounce the use of human body parts and stress most muti is plant-based ([32:13]).

9. Signs of Renewed Investigation and Hopes for Justice

• Recent developments: police have subpoenaed phone records, national investigators are now involved, and Lorna’s brother has been asked for a DNA sample ([32:40]–[34:20]).
• Emotional impact on community and Lorna’s family:
  • [34:20] Kurz Prinsloo (last to see Lorna): “I shouldn’t have taken no for an answer…I feel guilty. She’s gone without a trace.”
  • [36:23] Jeff Seward (Lorna’s brother): “I was dumbfounded. I didn’t think anything like that existed, let alone in this century…It doesn’t really matter…It’s just human.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Forensic evidence is unlike wine in this respect. It doesn’t improve with age.”
  —David Klatso, forensic scientist ([13:38])

• “The market they created for body parts, there’s a market every day for it.”
  —Francois Nell, head of farm security ([26:02])

• “Doing absolutely nothing is the very worst thing you can do…unfortunately, that’s what our police are doing.”
  —David Klatso ([15:23])

• “It’s all of the above. Politicians…criminals…they need some kind of a muti ritual to perform a certain task or be elected or gain wealth.”
  —Ian Cameron ([28:41])

• “If you were investigator on this case, what would you be doing to try and make that happen?”
  —Jane Flanagan
  “Feet on the ground is the important thing to do.”
  —David Klatso ([15:07])

• “We are living in fear now…we don’t know the culprit…we want…closure.”
  —Bongani Matendwa, Community Police Forum ([20:17])

• “I was dumbfounded. I didn’t think anything like that existed, let alone in this century…It’s just human.”
  —Jeff Seward, Lorna’s brother ([36:23])

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• [01:33] — Setting the scene: spiritual cleansing ceremony; backdrop of fear and superstition
• [03:13] — Locals express fear; daily routines disrupted
• [05:23] — Introduction of phone evidence and data dump
• [06:45] — Topic Works introduction and movement analysis
• [09:40] — Suspicious figures and night movements toward a remote property
• [12:56] — Police failings: ignored forensic evidence
• [13:38] — Forensic expert’s critique and call for action
• [20:17] — Community Police Forum’s plea; climate of fear
• [24:54] — Poaching and muti trade interconnected
• [26:54] — Ian Cameron on criminal and political buyers of strong muti
• [29:41] — Ritual preparation for crime (cash-in-transit heist)
• [30:32] — Political influence and ANC’s public use of muti
• [32:13] — Traditional healers’ opposition to human body parts in muti
• [34:20] — Guilt and regret of the last known witness (Kurz Prinsloo)
• [36:23] — Family’s anguish and hope for closure (Jeff Seward)

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Conclusion

The episode reveals the scale and complexity of the muti murders in South Africa, exposing the toxic mix of fear, superstition, organized crime, and corruption that allows these crimes to go unpunished and leaves families in limbo. Despite belated investigative steps and moments of hope, the network behind these disappearances remains intact, and the local community continues to live in the shadow of Ghost Mountain. The tragic case of Lorna McSorley becomes a lens for understanding deeper structural failures in a divided and tumultuous South African society.

Transcript

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[Jane Flanagan]

This episode contains graphic descriptions of murder and violence and might not be suitable for all listeners. South African church services are a lively affair. People dance and sing as much as they pray for peace and redemption. This raucous ceremony is taking place in March this year at a church in Makuze, a town in eastern South Africa. But this is not a standard Sunday service. In fact, normal services across the district have been cancelled. This is a special ceremony to cleanse the town of evil spirits. Others stand outside the church with vuvuzelas and drums in a musical ritual. Because Nkousi is where in September 2025, the British tourist Lorna McSorley vanished on a walk near Ghost Mountain. At least nine locals have also gone missing in recent years, some bodies turning up mutilated. In fact, two cases have been reported since Lorna went missing. It's created an atmosphere of fear and superstition hanging over the community. We are also scared for our lives

[Francois Nell]

because now we are not able to to go out at night because you never know when you're going to be go missing yourself.

[Jane Flanagan]

As I've investigated Lorna's disappearance, I've come to understand it's not spirits or witchcraft that are responsible, but likely a real trade in human body parts sold to be used as a form of dark muti or traditional medicine.

[Francois Nell]

The market they created for body parts is a market every day for it. They just very careful what they do.

[Jane Flanagan]

To date, no one has been held to account. Families have been left bereft with no remains to bury. Frustrated by police inaction. The police and the cab. Maybe the government maybe could take us serious. Maybe we could get some justice. In this final episode of our series, I'm trying to fill in the gaps the police missed to uncover what really happened to Lorna McSorley and maybe even who was responsible. From the times and Sunday times, I'm jane flanagan. This is ghost mountain, episode three, the network. In the months after Lorna McSorley went missing, the trail went completely cold. The last known sighting was by a farmer on the route.

[Kurz Prinsloo]

You could see she's hot because she was walking, you know, but she wasn't stressed. There was no nothing in her voice that says, hey, I've got a problem.

[Jane Flanagan]

A crumpled map was found on the track.

[Francois Nell]

When we found the map, it was like, okay. And then we knew she had to be here. So that was actually the best lead we had on that stage.

[Jane Flanagan]

But that was all the hard evidence they found. Until Francois Nell, the head of security on the farm where Lorna disappeared, managed to uncover the most interesting evidence we've seen so far. Using a process known as a data dump, he found four phones that had all been in the area right after Lorna was last seen. That's where I wanted to start. If we could work out who those phones belonged to and build a clearer picture of what happened, we might be able to fill in some of the gaps that Francois had been unable to explain. And to do that, I had to leave rural Makouse and travel north, some 300 miles to the South African capital. Pretoria is a far cry from the rolling hills around Makouse. It's the executive capital, a mishmash of old colonial era houses, modern office blocks and the informal shacks that you'll find in every South African city. It's rather dull, but it is the bureaucratic hub and where you'll find the top intelligence operations in the country.

[Santi Duga]

My name is Santi Duga. I'm the owner and I'm CEO of a company called Topic Words. What we do is predictive intelligence and investigators.

[Jane Flanagan]

Port Topic Works is based at a highly secure building. Each conference room has floor to ceiling screens that stream live data from countries where Santee's clients need intelligence. The screens blink with social media trends, protest activity, fuel shortages and shifts in public mood, measuring the threats of possible unrest. Santi's blonde hair is neatly cropped. She tells me she began her career in military intelligence. Her company is the only intelligence and risk analysis firm of its kind in the country. It's lawful and licensed by South African authorities. But Santi has asked us not to publish the specifics of how it all works.

[Santi Duga]

We can't disclose too much, but it boils down to our research with the assistance of Satellite has enabled us to do movement analysis on what happened on the day and the days leading towards the day of the incident.

[Jane Flanagan]

I gave Santi the GPS location of where Lorna's map had been found and the times when she was last seen and reported missing. Her team of analysts were able to plot out a map and timeline of unusual and potentially suspicious activity in the area.

[Santi Duga]

Because it's such a rural and secluded area and it's not in the middle of a build up city, it was quite easy because there's not a lot of movements supposed to be in that area and that assisted us a lot in identifying people.

[Jane Flanagan]

What the analysis reveals is striking. Topic Works mapped the area retrospectively reviewing patterns of movement around Ghost Mountain Inn and the farm where Lorna disappeared in the weeks before and after. The aim was to identify what was routine activity and what was not. On September 27, the day Lorna checked in, Topic Works identified two individuals with no obvious connection to the property who had been lingering there for a couple of hours. They would have been in a position to observe. Lorna and her partner Leon set off on their walk, a walk from which Leon soon returned, leaving Lorna to continue alone. We can then see two other figures hanging about from further along the route whose movements stood out. It was Saturday afternoon on private farmland with workers all off for the weekend, and yet one of the figures was standing in the sugarcane fields along the walking route. They would have been able to see Leon turn back an hour later when Lorna stopped at a farmhouse to ask for directions. The other figure could be seen very close to where her map was later found discarded. Then, in the dead of night, the two individuals who had been loitering near the hotel are tracked to a remote property six miles north of Ghost Mountain Inn on the road towards the Eswatini border, a property that is close to a large body of water. As we've already heard, water is said to play a role in Muti killings. But the Topic Works report goes further still.

[Santi Duga]

And then with the cross reference of social media and taboofs of the local community, that led us to a quite accurate, I would say, possibility that this could be linked to muti murders.

[Jane Flanagan]

While Topic Works carried out their own tracking, I gave them the phone numbers which Francois found in his data dump. Their technology was able to link those to various social media accounts, showing us who some of those devices likely belonged to. The most interesting account showed a man in what looks like a traditional muti shop. Shelves stacked with potions. On the shop wall is a flag of Eswatini, the tiny kingdom a short drive from Makuse. Another photo shows bundles of cash. I put his number into my phone. He's active on WhatsApp. And his profile picture shows a hierarchy of the big cats. It makes me think of the tiger bones I'd seen for sale at the muti stalls in Makuze. We have handed these details to the South African police and so cannot name the individuals. But taken together, the reports from Topic Works and Francois seemed to point to a coordinated abduction where multiple people saw that Lorna was alone among the sugarcane. Perhaps there was an order out for a white victim. Do you think there's some very solid leads that the police could.

[Santi Duga]

I think definitely, and there's sufficient technology and facts that supports what we've put into the report. And that could definitely lead to a more directed investigation from the police's side. You end up at the end of the day with quite accurate and directed information that you need to follow. That next level is where you actually have to have boots on the ground to follow up.

[Jane Flanagan]

The other than the huge search during the first week after Lorna went missing, those boots on the ground have not materialized. Francois did hand the police the results of his data dump two weeks after Lorna disappeared. I've seen correspondence confirming it was received. Yet detectives working on the case later claimed they knew nothing about the phone evidence. The South African police confirmed to us that Lorna is still being treated as a missing person's case. But time is running out to get any usable evidence.

[David Klatso]

Forensic evidence is unlike wine in this respect. It doesn't improve with age. So the moment you. You get a person of interest, you should get yourself there and talk to them asap.

[Jane Flanagan]

David Klatso is a South African forensic scientist who's worked on a huge number of murder cases during a 40 year career. I showed him the report put together by Topic Works and he was surprised that the police had not done their own report of this kind Those satellite

[David Klatso]

downloads would indicate a number of people quite easily identifiable by the police with the available technology. And that should have been immediately put into place. And the moment that happened, you could have tracked down those particular devices which allowed the identification of the individuals and put into place more conventional forensic investigation.

[Jane Flanagan]

Eight months after she disappeared, it's still ranked as a missing persons case. Would you agree with that?

[David Klatso]

No. It should by now be a murder case.

[Jane Flanagan]

David also suggests it could be linked to Mootie.

[David Klatso]

I think it's a very likely explanation. I would default to that. Once no body turned up, once no credit card had been used, and once there was absolutely no sign whatsoever of this unfortunate woman, I would certainly put that on my list of things to investigate.

[Jane Flanagan]

The family and friends of Lorna McSorley are of obviously little hope now that she might be found alive. And the next best thing would be to find some remains. If you were the investigator on this case, what would you be doing to try and make that happen?

[David Klatso]

Feet on the ground is the important thing to do. You'd have people tracking down these individuals that were identified as being in the area, finding out what they've done. You can. You can get access to their bank accounts. You can get access to the kind of medications that they are preparing and selling. I would send in undercover agents to find out what I could purchase. And, I mean, it could be very interesting if you send someone in, say, I need particularly strong Mooty to win the sweepstakes or to win this court case that I've been involved in. Doing absolutely nothing is the very worst thing that you can do. I mean, that sounds so obvious, but unfortunately, that's what our police are doing. Doing nothing. Hope it'll go away.

[Jane Flanagan]

So why are the police doing so little. At the same time, in Makuze, the town under Ghost Mountain, there is a climate of fear.

[Bongani Matendwa]

They don't give the full information about those cases

[Jane Flanagan]

because they.

[Bongani Matendwa]

They are afraid.

[Jane Flanagan]

They're afraid of the muti.

[Bongani Matendwa]

Yeah. And they're afraid that maybe those culprits

[Jane Flanagan]

will kill them and maybe something else.

[Ian Cameron]

And this would range from politicians that believe that they need some kind of a mooty ritual to perform a certain task or be elected. And it would range from them to. To criminals.

[Jane Flanagan]

That's after the break.

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[Jane Flanagan]

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[Jane Flanagan]

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[Jane Flanagan]

we have handed the topic works report to the South African police, but in Makuzeh, with the nine or more disappearances that have gone cold, the local community has little hope that any investigation will come to anything. I did speak to the police about the cases off the record, but none would go on tape for this series. One person who would was Bongani Matendwa, the chair of the Community Police Forum, the liaison between Mikuze's residents and the local police. We met outside his house, a steep walk up the slope of Ghost Mountain. I wasn't confident my hire car would make it. He has been trying to impress upon the police just how terrified the people of Makuse have become.

[Bongani Matendwa]

We are there to hurry. We are there to hurry and we are living in fear now. You can't just Leave your home unattended, like maybe your kids or your wife. And the only challenge we are facing is the fact that we don't know the culprit who's doing that. So we want that closure.

[Jane Flanagan]

As the representative of your community, are you under a lot of pressure to. To get to the bottom of this?

[Bongani Matendwa]

So much, ma'.

[Jane Flanagan]

Am.

[Bongani Matendwa]

So much pressure and a lot of pressure.

[Jane Flanagan]

Is there a lot of trust in the police in your community?

[Bongani Matendwa]

Since we are in partnership with them, I can say yes. But community members are complaining about police. There are cases that were opened. Police are not giving feedback to the government about those cases.

[Jane Flanagan]

Bongani has held multiple meetings with the police to try and get some action, but it's so far yielded little. And he tells me that the number of suspected muti link disappearances might in fact be far more than the police are aware of.

[Bongani Matendwa]

Committee members are afraid to. To report cases now.

[Jane Flanagan]

So you think there are some cases linked to Mootie that people. People don't even report.

[Bongani Matendwa]

Not reporting per se, but they don't give the full information about those cases

[Jane Flanagan]

because they.

[Bongani Matendwa]

They are afraid.

[Jane Flanagan]

They're afraid of the muti?

[Bongani Matendwa]

Yeah. And they're afraid that maybe those culprits will kill.

[Jane Flanagan]

It's not just the Makuze residents who are terrified of muti. During my days of asking questions around the town, I had become a recognizable figure. A senior local official requested a meeting with me after hours. He did not want to be recorded, but he did say he wanted me to know that he was personally aware of at least a dozen disappearances in the area since the pandemic. The biggest danger we know, Makuzi is this Muti. We are all scared of it, he said. As we chatted, what struck me was that this official very much believed in its power. When I told him I was puzzled by Lorna McSorley's decision to walk alone in the bush on the day she disappeared, he offered an explanation. He told me she was likely under a spell that had been cast to make the mutie hunter's job easier. Seeing my eyes widen in surprise, he said they can make people do things that are out of character. If an educated official was prepared to believe the supernatural had a hand in Lorna's disappearance, then it was perhaps no surprise that the case had stalled. But while fear of Mooty might contribute to a lack of progress by police, some suggest a far earthier explanation. Like Francois Nell, the man who heads security for the largest farm in Makuze and led the volunteer hunt when Lorna McSorley went missing. Why do you think the authorities don't want these cases investigated?

[Francois Nell]

I don't think they do it on purpose. I think it's more a lack. 50% of it will be on purpose. The other 50 will be a lack of interest.

[Jane Flanagan]

Corruption is a major problem in South Africa and perhaps nowhere more so than in KwaZulu Natal, the large province which includes Makuze. The province has been at the centre of a string of policing scandals. There's currently a commission of inquiry looking into links between organized crime, gangs, police officers, politicians and the courts. More than a dozen officials, including police, ministers and commissioners, have been implicated, many of them from KwaZulu Natal. Francoise also told me about the gangs operating around Makuze. Poaching networks his teams confront every day, protecting farm equipment and wildlife. The area's rhino population has been decimated by the illegal trade in Horn. Is there a crossover with the muti trade?

[Francois Nell]

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Rhino poaching is just one of the poaching problems we have. Birds get catched, feathers being cut, monkeys hands been chopped off, pythons, African rock pythons getting caught in traps, being skinned and they sell the skins. Where does it go to? To the muti market, just not far from here, about 80k's from here. It's a place called Nungoma. There's a market twice the size of a rapi field. You can't even go there as a white man because it's a market where they come together and sell leopard skins, hippo skins, elephant skins, you name it, that is how big it is. So it is not a small industry in this area.

[Jane Flanagan]

The poaching industry is the muti industry. Remember, most muti is taken from plants, trees or animals. And the same networks of people who might be sent into the bush to find a snake skin or track a rhino for its horn would be well placed to find a human body part to be used in strong muti.

[Francois Nell]

The market they created for body parts, there's a market every day for it. They're just very careful what they do because they don't want to draw attention to them.

[Jane Flanagan]

Francois and his team have long questioned whether these well armed and organized gangs have been able to leverage influence over local officials. The South African police told us that they would urge any witnesses to such actions to open a case against suspected police officers at any police station. If fear of the supernatural and links between the mooty trade and organized crime weren't enough to stop the police from taking these investigations further. There is also the Question of who is buying this strong muti because it doesn't come cheap.

[Ian Cameron]

I think there's a general belief that it would be far off in a. In a rural place where cultural ritual rituals, or so called cultural rituals would be the order of the day. But from my experience and the bit of exposure that I've had to muti killings, it is widely spread across South Africa.

[Jane Flanagan]

Ian Cameron is an opposition MP and the chairperson of the Police Portfolio Committee in South Africa's parliament in Cape Town. He is not an easy man to get time with, but he agrees to meet me at a coffee shop between his appointments. Before he went into politics, Ian spent years working with victims of violent crime who couldn't afford legal help. He knows how organized criminal syndicates operate in South Africa and has been involved in several cases of Mootie killings and witnessed some terrible scenes.

[Ian Cameron]

In one of the cases that I had some contact with quite a few years ago, there was a small boy who. Whose nose was cut off for supposed use in such a killing. And there were several others. I think of the case of Little Bokabo Po, which to this day I believe may have been such a kind of killing, because up until today, they haven't found all of her body parts.

[Jane Flanagan]

He explains that the customers who are buying this strong muti and ultimately fueling this trade are not from the rural areas where the victims are easy to pick off. The clients often come from the big cities where there's the money to pay for it. So who are the sort of people who would need the muti, the strong muti involving body parts? These hardened criminals are these politicians who would be the clients.

[Ian Cameron]

So I think it's all of the above. Obviously, first of all, you need to go find people that believe in it. That's the first part. And this would range from politicians that believe that they need some kind of a muti ritual to perform a certain task or be elected or to. To gain some kind of wealth. And it would range from them to. To criminals. I can share from practical experience that not too long ago I was in a crime scene where a whole group, an entire gang had been shot and killed by the police. They tried to shoot their way out from arrest and they engaged the South African police service. They were then all subsequently killed. But the interesting part of it was that they had just finished performing some kind of muti ritual and some of them had returned from meeting with the said sangoma or witch doctor from where they would then have prepared themselves to go and do a cash in transit.

[Jane Flanagan]

Heist as preparation. Before committing their heist, this criminal group had sourced strong muti and performed a ritual to give them power. But getting attention to tackle these crimes is very difficult. Muti killings are rarely spoken about publicly at a high level. Ian believes the political class could be doing more and that there's a reason they don't want to do that. Remember, muti is the Zulu word for medicine. It's largely benign, involving traditional therapies, but it's ever present in many ethnic groups in South Africa, even in the highest offices of power.

[Ian Cameron]

The authorities wouldn't necessarily want this to be really receiving too much public attention or scrutiny because it might reflect badly on them.

[Jane Flanagan]

In March this year, senior figures in the African National Congress, the party Nelson Mandela led to power after apartheid and has governed South Africa ever since, pushed for their headquarters to be spiritually cleansed using muti. A cleansing ceremony like this would have involved herbs or tree bark, not body parts. But it speaks to a political culture where these traditions are hugely influential. And that presents some worrying questions about the political appetite to take on the dark muti practices which are terrorizing poor communities.

[Ian Cameron]

I think politically there are some parties and individuals that represent parties that are scared of being exposed or not exposed, but that they would alienate people and actually lose support if they are too outspoken about such practices. It may actually form part of their particular constituencies and therefore they are very careful of speaking out.

[Jane Flanagan]

So what do you think can be done to curb it?

[Ian Cameron]

So I think it's something that certainly can be done by the South African police service. The encouraging part to me is that many cultural leaders have previously come out to say, but that is not really what we believe in terms of using human body parts. It is not the practical reality of our cultural beliefs. And I think those initiatives need to be supported, that you can communicate and influence communities to not be drawn into these types of practices.

[Jane Flanagan]

I've spoken to leaders within the Traditional Healers association of South Africa who echo Ian's comments and deplore the use of strong muti and the negative impact on the reputation of their practices. They insist it's not a legitimate form of traditional healing. But given the mooty trade's apparent links to organised crime and the lack of political will that Ian describes, this is a problem that needs more than words. It needs action. And in Lorna McSorley's case, that may finally be happening. I passed the topic works report to Ian Cameron, who tells me the national force, not just investigators, in KwaZulu Natal, is now looking into her disappearance. I also recently heard from Lorna's brother Jeff, that he has been asked by the national force to provide a DNA sample in case they find some evidence or Lorna's remains. As we were putting the final touches to this series, Francois told me that the police had belatedly obtained a subpoena that compels the phone companies to share records on the numbers that his data dump had put at the scene. He hopes that those leads will now finally be used. There does seem to be some new energy in the investigation. I hope it will bring some closure or even arrests. Beyond the search for justice. Lorna's disappearance and the other locals before her and since have left the community in Makuze forever changed. Kurz Prinsloo, the farmer who had the last confirmed sighting of her, who offered her a lift back to the hotel, an offer she turned down, tells me he replaced that moment over and over again.

[Kurz Prinsloo]

When I'm alone, like in genuine alone, and it's just me and myself and I think about it, it's like even now, I don't know if you see it. I want to try, you know, it's bad. What if it was my mother in law? What if it was my mom? It's bad. What if it's my wife? Sorry, I'm not a guy that used to have a voice like this. It's just sad. I shouldn't have taken no from her for. For her answer. I should have kept on asking of telling her, I'm gonna take you.

[Jane Flanagan]

How do you feel?

[Kurz Prinsloo]

Guilty. She's gone without a trace. Nobody know where she is, what happened, who's going to do something about it? Who's going to help those families?

[Jane Flanagan]

Puss tells me his family has lost their sense of freedom since Lorna vanished. But the wider community in Makuze hopes this could be a turning point, a moment when these disappearances and mutilated bodies are finally taken more seriously. But for now, those responsible remain at large and locals fear, are likely living among them. Back in the uk, thousands of miles from Ghost Mountain and local tales of spirits and abductions, Jeff Seward, Lorna's brother, is still trying to come to terms with her likely fate.

[Jeff Seward]

I was dumbfounded. I didn't think anything like that existed, let alone in this century. There was an oh my God moment. To think that your sister's gone through that and how she was feeling, I don't know. I mean, she must have been terrified. It's not just Lorna. It's all the other people, you know, black or white. I understand. It doesn't really matter, you know, it's just human.

[Jane Flanagan]

What would you like to see happen?

[Jeff Seward]

I hope they find some semblance of some remains of her so we can lay her to rest somewhere. You know, that would be an end of it for me. You know, then I could probably grieve properly. But at the moment, I just can't. As I said,

[Jane Flanagan]

Investigating Lorna McSolley's disappearance has become an unsettling journey through the contradictions of this period. Beautiful and deeply unequal country. I keep thinking about something that Tbeki, a former South African president, said nearly 30 years ago, challenging the idea of a more equal post apartheid rainbow nation. He said there were really two South Africas, a large, poor black one and a smaller one that was rich and mostly white. His pessimism has largely been borne out. I live in the smaller, comfortable South Africa that Thabo Mbeki described, but spend much of my working life in the bigger, poorer version. The area around Ghost Mountain is typical of it. Few foreign tourists ever venture there. Lorna McSorley did. Her disappearance has been a reminder that beyond the exquisite landscapes lies a very different South Africa that most visitors never see, but that millions of people have to navigate every day. From the Times and Sunday Times, this is Ghost Mountain, a series for the story. I'm your host, Jane Flanagan. The producer is Harry Stott. The executive producers are Taryn Siegel and Kate Lamble. Sound design and composition is by Mao Laceto. If you have any questions about the series, do get in touch with us@thestory thetimes.com Our normal program will return tomorrow.

[David Klatso]

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