British couple's cause of death thrown to crocodiles hours after BBC interview

World-renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, blew themselves up in 2018 while touring an area mountainous South African in search of rare seeds for their business

Rod and his wife Rachel tour with BBC presenter Nick Bailey (

Image: collection unknown)

A British couple were beaten to death and thrown to crocodiles by a trio with suspected links to Islamic State who then spent £37,000 on their credit cards, a court has heard.

World renowned botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, got blown up in 2018 while roaming a mountainous region of South Africa in search of rare seeds for their company.

They died of blunt force trauma, a doctor told a court today.

In a retrial at the High Court in Durban, Sayfudeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 41, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 30, and Malawian Mussa Ahmed Jackson, 35, were charged with theft and brutal murder.

They allegedly put their bludgeoned bodies in sleeping bags and carried them to a bridge over a crocodile-infested river before throwing them over it.

Murdered Rod and Rachel Saunders in the South African wilderness behind the mountains (

Picture:

Pacific Bulb Society)

They then used their credit cards at ATMs and in a series of shops spent thousands of pounds.

A doctor told the court that an examination of the bodies revealed evidence of "scavenging activity".

He said: "Damage to the bodies suggests that something might have fed on them. For example a crocodile due to tissue loss in the arms, neck and chest. Once the bodies were pushed into the banks, dogs and rats could have fed on it”.

It was said that they died of blunt force trauma.

Microbiologist Dr Rachel Saunders and horticulturist Rodney, who have been married for 30 years, spend six months a year in the remote mountains of South Africa in search of rare gladioli seeds.

The Saunders left their Cape Town home on February 4, 2018 to meet a