Cape Town – The family of a Cape Town Manenberg mom, Shireen Essop, who went missing on May 23, has denied rumours surrounding her alleged kidnapping.
The 32-year-old mother was reportedly found safe by Cape Town’s Klipfontein Neighbourhood Watch (KNW) three weeks after unknown men allegedly forced her into their car and took her to an unknown location.
Upon being reunited with her family, the family and police remained mum about what exactly happened, reports said.
Rumours that Shireen had fabricated the kidnapping to go on a drug spree in Durban started spreading, while some alleged that the kidnapping was about siblings’ rivalry over family business, reported News24
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The family spokesperson, Hameed Essop, however, rubbished the rumours as “lies” and denied that Shireen was in Durban or that she took drugs.
Hameed said the family was trying to heal from the incident.
“There was never any sibling rivalry of a business being given over to her brother. Shireen’s dad has also never owned a business. He has been in retirement for 15 years already. The rumours that this whole kidnapping started because of a sibling tiff are all lies,” the report quoted Hameed as saying.
TimesLive reported that the rumours were sparked by a recent TikTok post which alleged Shireen “had not been kidnapped but had willingly got into another vehicle”.
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Herman Bosman, who described himself as a kidnapping incident manager, said the rumours were untrue and that some people were coming “forward with absolute nonsense”, the report said.
“I was involved in the investigation from start to finish. It is a real incident and she was released and there is still a police investigation pending,
“She has gone through a lot of trauma and a lot of the stuff in the media is absolute speculation, rude and defamatory” the report quoted Bosman as saying.