Mystery surrounds death of Birmingham teen in South Africa two years on

Jan 16 2012 by Jonny Greatrex, Sunday Mercury

THE death of a Midland teenager who died after she suspiciously jumped from a speeding car in South Africa remains a mystery on the second anniversary of the tragedy.

Maya Tankaria suffered multiple injuries after she was said to have leapt from the Volkswagen Caddy as it travelled at 70mph along a highway near the Mossel Bay coastal resort in January 2010.

A South African police source previously said that Maya may have hitched a lift from a petrol station with the car to travel back to where she was staying in Sedgefield, 30 miles from where she was found.

Officers launched a ‘culpable homicide’ investigation – the equivalent of manslaughter in the UK – into the 18 year-old’s death.

Officers quizzed the car driver and sent their findings to the Senior State Prosecutor at Mossel Bay Magistrates’ court a month later.

But the prosecutor has still not decided whether or not to bring the matter to court.

Captain Bernadine Steyn, spokeswoman for the South Africa Police Service, told the Sunday Mercury: “The docket is still at the office of the Senior State Prosecutor at the Mossel Bay Magistrates’ court.

“The decision whether to prosecute or not will be made by the Department of Justice.”