SCOTS DOC FEARED DEAD IN CAR HIJACK; MYSTERY: Surgeon vanishes after leaving hospital.
A SCOTS brain surgeon is feared to have been murdered in a horrific attack in South Africa.Dr Alec Grant's car was found abandoned with a bullet hole in the driver's window.
Thugs used a cigarette lighter to burn the words "We kill all white trash" on the vehicle's roof.
Dr Grant, whose family are originally from Grantown-on-Spey, Moray, vanished after visiting his patients at the hospital where he worked.
He was last seen by colleagues at 7am on Sunday as he left Sunninghill Hospital, in an upmarket district of Johannesburg, to go home. His car was found 24 hours later.
Police fear his car was hijacked as he drove through a notorious black ghetto in the city. They believe a gang forced him to drive to the countryside before killing him and dumping his body in wasteland.
His distraught wife, Helen, who has an elderly mother in Scotland, said last night: "This has been a terrible shock for everyone. We are still waiting for news. We don't know anything. I am desperately worried about how my mother will take it."
Dr Grant's car, a Peugeot 406 with a Union Jack sticker in the back window, was discovered 125 miles from his home on a gravel road at Kranskop, in the Northern Province.
His mobile phone, dictaphone and doctor's bag were all left untouched. Loose change was scattered over the seats. Only a portable radio was missing.
Part of a bullet was found inside the car but there was no trace of blood. Detectives with sniffer dogs were yesterday combing the area.
Captain Zacharias Swart, part of the police search team, said: "The search is difficult, because of the distance between where Dr Grant was last seen and where the vehicle was abandoned."
Violence in South Africa has spiralled since the end of apartheid. It is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with 50 killings per 100,000 people. In the US, the figure is 6.8.
Gangs high on drugs often target drivers as they stop at traffic lights or junctions. Last year, a Scots engineer was shot dead in South Africa after he stopped at a junction a few yards from his home.
Father-of-two Alistair Hector, 52, from Kincardineshire, had been planning to come home because of the soaring violence and crime rate.
Three years ago, another Scots doctor, Spence Alexander, was stabbed and shot dead as he tried to escape from a gang of thieves who hijacked his minibus at gunpoint.
But police say Dr Grant's disappearance does not bear the hallmarks of a typical car hijacking.
Captain Swart said: "It is very strange because his cellphone, dictaphone and doctors' bag were all left in the car and there were no blood stains. We don't know what the motive was."
He added that the words on the roof "may have been to throw us off the scent".
The search for clues has been hampered by rainfall.
Captain Swart said: "The rain has not helped our inquiries. However, there are some mud marks in the car, and we have been able to take some fingerprints.
"The right hand window was shot into the dashboard, but everything else was still intact. This is unusual in South Africa - if they kill someone they usually burn out the vehicle to eradicate all the clues."
Dr Grant was born in South Africa, but his family are originally from Speyside. He studied medicine at Cambridge University, and qualified as a doctor in 1974. He and his wife have several children.
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| Author: | Oakeshott, Isabel |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) |
| Date: | Mar 8, 2000 |
| Words: | 590 |
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