The postmortem carried out on one-year-old Orderick Lucas on 2 April 2019 could not conclusively determine the cause of death, but foul play cannot be ruled out.
One-year-old Orderick Lucas was murdered around 25 March 2019 in Kleinvlei, Cape Town. His body was found in a stormwater drain on 1 April 2019. (Photo: Supplied)
This was the testimony by pathologist Dr Daphne Anthony in the Western Cape High Court on Monday 15 February. Anthony said Orderick’s badly decomposed body was infested with maggots.
Anthony told the court that due to the severe decomposition of the body no obvious external injuries were found, and no injuries or bruises were present on his skull, internal organs or brain. The infant’s face was deformed with dark brown discolouration and covered with grass debris. The nails on the hands and feet were intact and also covered with grass debris. There were no defensive injuries on the arms and forearms.
The day little Orderick Lucas was reported missing, murder accused Melvin Volkwyn refused to pass the drain where the toddler's body would later be found, his legal guardian testified in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Pathologist Dr Daphne Anthony testified that Orderick Lucas’ body was severely decomposed.
The only injuries noted were discolouration on the back and side of his neck, suggestive of bruising, and an injury to the front of his head.
Anthony concluded that his cause of death was undetermined.
Little Orderick Lucas’ body was so badly decomposed that his cause of death could not be determined, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy on his remains testified in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
His body was found in a drain near his grandmother and legal guardian Cornelia Scheepers’ home in Witebol Close two years ago, more than a week after his disappearance.
The mom of slain one-year-old Orderick Lucas denied claims by murder-accused Melvin Volkwyn that she was the one who murdered her child, panicked and then dumped him.