A 67 year-old grandmother from Australia
has been found dead in South Africa where she travelled to meet a 28
year-old Nigerian she met on an online dating site.
The woman, Jette Jacobs was found dead in a Johannesburg guest house in February, two days after she met up with a man calling himself Jesse Orowo Omokoh. According to AU News,
the pair struck up an online relationship three years ago. In 2010,
Jacobs travelled to South Africa to meet him before he proposed late
last year. Over several years she sent over $100,000 to him.
After he proposed, she wanted to settle in Nigeria but her children had begged her to stay in Australia. Yahoo News reports
that her money, credit cards, laptop computer and jewellery were
missing. Omokoh was the last person to see Jacobs alive and told police
he found her body but he has since disappeared.
Although an empty pill bottle was found
near her body and the South African police initially thought she had
committed suicide, her children believe she was murdered.
“Anybody who knew my mother would know that there is no way that she would do that,” her daughter told 6PR.
Her son, who wants to be identified only as Mr Jacobs, told Yahoo News: ”After
losing dad, mum was feeling very lonely so she went online and went to
one of the dating sites and this young man contacted her and started to
chat to her. Mum, not realising what she was getting herself into,
started talking to this guy. This was about four years ago, and in that
period of time they’d been chatting quite regularly, then she decided to
travel to South Africa to meet him.”
“We didn’t want her to go, we tried
to stop her but she pushed us away and said we didn’t know what we were
talking about. We didn’t understand he was a true friend and not one of
those scams, and she really believed that she had someone that really
loved her.”
A joint operation between West
Australian Police and Consumer Protection tracks large amounts of money
being sent from West Australia to West African countries. A letter was
sent to Jacobs warning she might be a victim of fraud but it arrived
shortly after she had left Australia.
Detective Senior Constable Robert
Martin, from the Major Fraud Squad, says the circumstances surrounding
her death are suspicious. He told Yahoo News that the rising number of tragic occurences from meeting a person online is alarmingly high. “My
warning is that unless you have met the person face-to-face you do not
know what you are dealing with when you are talking to somebody online.
It is absolutely fraught with danger and we would say don’t sent money
to anybody that you have met on the computer. We also strongly urge
people not to travel overseas to meet someone they have met on the
computer.”
The Police are still searching for Omokoh.
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