By Thakira Desai

The janaza (Islamic funeral) of 6-year-old Stacey Adams is expected to commence at 15h00 on Tuesday. The little girl went missing on Saturday in Eastridge, Mitchells Plain. A body was subsequently found next to the wendy house of Stacey’s mother, Sasha-Lee Adams, on Sunday by members of the Rapid Child Response Unit.

While pathology results on the identity of the body is yet to be released to the public, Stacey’s mother’s cousin Lyle Daniels confirmed that the family expected to receive the body at 13h00 on Tuesday.

Daniels said the funeral prayers was expected to take place between 13h00 and 15h00 at 91 De La Rey Crescent, Eastridge. The Janaza Salah was scheduled to be performed at the Beacon Valley Masjid. Stacey’s final resting place is yet to be confirmed.

Daniels said the family hopes that the funeral will provide them with some form of closure.

“At this time, for us she is still here, almost as though her soul is not resting. We don’t want her to be at unrest, so the family wants all of this put behind us so that there is some closure.”

Western Cape SAPS spokesperson Colonel Andre Traut, said police are awaiting confirmation that the body found at the wendy house is in fact that of Stacey Adams.

“The suspect is due to make a court appearance tomorrow in Mitchells Plain… [But] we are still waiting for the identification to be confirmed,” Traut stated.

While police have not confirmed whether the suspect has confessed to the murder of the body that was found, Daniels said that the family did receive word that the suspect did confess to the crime.

With speculation mounting that the suspect has a history of molesting children, Daniels said the family was aware that the suspect was previously arrested for the murder of a former girlfriend.

“There were rumours, which were the truth, that he did kill his former girlfriend and hid her body underneath the bed. We got information that his docket disappeared – three months in jail and [he] just came out again,” Daniels added.

As someone who grew-up around the suspect, Daniels described his relationship with him as friendly.

“There was not a relationship between us, we would greet each other, but we did not have a decent conversation.”

With conflicting reports on the details of Stacey’s disappearance, Daniels explained that the family became concerned about her whereabouts after her grandmother sent her to the toilet in the main house on the property and she did not return.

Stacey’s grandmother, Laeeqah Adams, lives in a wendy house on the property of Daniels’ family home in De La Rey Road.

Given the fact that the incident has called to the fore child safety and parental negligence, Daniels asserted that the little girl would not walk to her mother’s home alone.

“Stacey was not a child that would go on her own. She would always take one of my sisters children or aunt’s children that would go with her,” he elaborated.

He said that the eldest of the children who would often accompany Stacey to her mother’s home is approximately 10-years-old.

Lyle Daniels describes  the details of Stacey Adams’ disappearance

At the time of the incident, Stacey’s mother left on Friday to her dad to Delft and she left Stacey by the grandmother, from where she would fetch Stacey on Saturday morning and take Stacey along to her grandfather.

We were looking on Saturday night, because she was last seen with him [the suspect] at the shop.

We looked everywhere until midnight and we could not find her, and we asked [the suspect] and he said he only saw her on Friday last – so he lied.

We left it until the morning; we went to the police station, we opened a missing case and we had flyers [made]. It was the morning we realized that she was not here, because she did not come home the [Saturday] night.

VOC 91.3fm