R500k reward offered for info on murdered Sandton banker

A huge reward is being offered for information on a murder of a London banker that took place in South Africa almost two years ago. Unsurprisingly, the father of the victim wants answers, whether SAPS can find them or not.

Sandton murder reward: Money on the table

62-year-old Australian father Ian Starkey is demanding those answers after the SAPS investigation stalled. James Starkey was murdered in his Sandton apartment in 2016. A British banking consultant, he was found beaten and strangled in his own living room in Nelson Mandela Square.

“It’s the not knowing that’s hard to cope with. Nearly two years later and I still don’t have answers. That makes grieving so much more painful for me and my family. It’s soul destroying and adds to our trauma,” Starkey told the Weekend Argus.

With CCTV footage incriminating two women, zero arrests have been made in the case. James was found stripped naked with his hand and ankles tied. He was beaten for such a prolonged period that his blood was spattered over the TV and walls.

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The police have also offered no clues as to why his blood was full of a frightening mix of various drugs. Cocaine, benzoylecgonine, methcathinone, methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine and ethanol were all present.

James Starkey was murdered just three weeks after getting engaged to his Ghanaian girlfriend. He was also three weeks away from finishing a three-month consultancy at Absa.

The two female suspects were spotted in CCTV footage in the lift standing behind Starkey on the Friday he was killed. The same women were seen leaving the building the next day with a black suitcase.

Ian Starkey has been left waiting for police to inform him about the women being called in or tested for DNA.

“I’m still waiting to hear if police linked her to DNA samples taken from James’s ransacked apartment,” he said. “I’m also puzzled how she managed to explain away James’s cap and other possessions on the day that police found him dead. I also want to know if they ever detained the second women for questioning.”

So far in 2018, there have been no major developments with the case.