N1 murders breakthrough

Police have made a breakthrough into the 2006 Rivonia offramp murders - and have already begun checking for links to last week's killing on the N1 highway.

News broke on Thursday that a 26-year-old man had been arrested for the murder of Qatar Airways service manager Clay Pierre-Louis, who was gunned down on the side of the N1 on July 22 2006.

The suspect - who was due to appear in court on Thursday morning - is also under investigation over the murder of Cape Town journalist Megan Herselman, which had taken place six weeks earlier.

The two murders - both just metres from the offramp - were probed in tandem because of chilling similarities, down to the cars the pair were driving.

The Star has learnt that the suspect is employed as a security guard and was arrested at his Ivory Park, Midrand, home at around 10pm on Tuesday. A team of three officers surprised him and took him into custody in what has been described as a "clean sweep". He did not resist arrest and denied any involvement. However, he later gave the police a statement.

The investigation was initially handled by Joburg's Serious and Violent Crime Unit but was taken over by a new investigator in April last year. This apparently breathed new life into a hunt that was "standing still".

A lot of electronic surveillance was done and data analysed before a link was finally confirmed.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman added that detectives had walked countless kilometres questioning potential witnesses and spent hours staking out the highway and various addresses.

On Thursday, Herselman's sister Naomi was stunned by the news. She had not yet been told about the arrest.

"It's overwhelming. I had no hope that they'd ever find anyone," she said.

She had always thought of the gang vanishing into the dark veld around the highway, never to be traced. "They've (the killers) never existed in my head... now they're real."

Asked whether a link was being explored between the 2006 murders and last week's fatal ambush of Arren Mahabir, a source close to the investigation said: "We're already looking at that. All avenues are being explored."

Last week, a gang of robbers placed rocks across the N1 highway between Malibongwe and William Nicol drives and waited for a car to hit them and pull over with damaged tyres. The William Nicol and Rivonia offramps are next to each other along the N1 highway.

Mahabir was on his way to Durban to visit his family in the early hours of the morning when he struck the rocks.

Police are hopeful that a strong link between the two 2006 murders will be established. Detectives are certain the murders were committed by a gang. The remaining members are being sought.

Pierre-Louis and Herselman were gunned down in their cars after they stopped on the side of the N1 highway. Both were lost and had stopped to get directions when they were attacked.

Herselman had just flown into Joburg from Cape Town and was on her way to a guesthouse ahead of an outdoor adventure expo being held in Kyalami the following day.

The 49-year-old editor for Drive Out magazine had stopped about 100m from the Rivonia offramp and was ambushed at around 8.40pm. She was shot four times and, after trying to pull away, steered her car into a ditch. Nothing was taken from her.

Pierre-Louis, 42, had recently moved to South Africa from Seychelles and was on his way to have drinks with friends when he lost his way. He was on his phone when the killer struck, asked for his cellphone and shot him in the head. His phone was stolen but, Opperman said, had been recovered.

"We can now truly say that they followed every possible lead in their quest to find the suspect. Their patience and very thorough investigations paid off," he added.