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Senseless murder of restaurateur

Vanessa Papas 8 August 2003
The vicious murder of Anna Christina Annandale, owner of Vagabonds, an English pub on the corner of Bond Street and Hendrik Verwoerd Drive, Ferndale follows several senseless attacks on restaurateurs in the Randburg precinct in the past six months.

Two men attacked Annandale (53), wife and mother of two, last Monday morning at 8.35am, while she was opening her restaurant for the day's business.

They took her to an office at the back of the restaurant where they tied her hands behind her back with a telephone cord. She was hit on the head with an unknown object and it is believed she was then strangled to death. Her attackers fled in her Grey Datsun, registration number BJV098GP.

Her body was discovered after an employee noticed a suspicious-looking man leaving the premises. He alerted the Randburg police and said he believed an armed robbery was in progress.

When police arrived Annandale was dead.

According to Inspector Heinrigh van Heerden, spokesperson for Randburg police station and present on the scene, Annandale was found lying flat on her stomach. The only thing that appeared to have been tampered with was the office safe. An undisclosed amount of money was missing along with Annandale's car keys.

"A witness reported seeing two men leave the premises. The men claimed to have been delivering goods. We found no weapon at the scene and it's being investigated as to the exact cause of death," Van Heerden said.

Annandale's body was sent for an autopsy with the results still pending.

Annandale owned Vagabonds for only two months.

The case has been taken over by the Serious and Violent Crimes unit.

Management has, since the incident, increased security by implementing a 24-hour surveillance service.

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Copyright © 2003, Rodney Jones, rtjones@amethyst.co.za, Randburg, South Africa (Last updated on 8 August 2003)