Cape Town graphic designer Annette de Klerk, who disappeared from the city centre last Sunday and was found in Groote Schuur's trauma unit on Wednesday, has not yet been able to tell the police or her parents where she went or whether she had been kidnapped. All that is known at this stage is that an ambulance picked her up and took her to hospital and that the police were questioning a man from Milnerton, family friend Koos de Villiers said.De Klerk's parents and two sisters, from Johannesburg, are spending Christmas in Cape Town to be with her.
"She's conscious, but still in a daze. She doesn't know what happened to her.
She hasn't even been able to tell her parents what happened," De Villiers
said."But the most important thing is, she's alive. Her family couldn't have
asked for a better Christmas present. This has been an ordeal one wouldn't wish
on your worst enemies. We are very grateful to the media and the public. We
believe if it wasn't for the public's help, we may not have found her alive."De
Villiers said the family believed she may have been persuaded to get into a car
with someone, but that whoever took her with them must have taken advantage of
the fact that she was not fully aware of what was happening. De Klerk has since
been transferred from Groote Schuur to a private hospital, where her condition
is improving. She was not physically harmed during her disappearance.De Villiers
said she was still getting calls from people who think they have sighted her in
different places across the province.Police spokesperson Randall Stoffels said
the police were still investigating a case of kidnapping. No suspects had been
identified, he said."We haven't been able to take a statement from Miss de
Klerk. Hopefully we'll be able to talk to her in the coming week. We won't know
what happened to her until she can tell us,"
Stoffels said.Posters and pamphlets with her picture, a description of what she had been wearing and contact numbers for the police and her family were distributed all over the city. A massive campaign was also launched on the Internet. De Klerk was last seen at Lola's in Long Street, shortly before her cellphone was stolen and switched off. People who saw her there said she acted strangely and talked to herself before walking off with a group of street children and later a strange man.
