Mother’s desperate questions after Rika Norris’s body found after three-month search

When 60-year-old Rika Norris left her sister’s home for a walk on May 23, her family had no idea it would be 82 days before they saw her again, and that she would return in a body bag after being airlifted from a remote ravine where she is believed to have slipped and fallen.

For almost three months, the Norris family and hundreds of volunteers searched for her across a vast farm in Somerset West and surrounding mountain areas, using drones, search-and-rescue teams and even a helicopter.

Norris had been staying with her younger sister, Kitty, her brother-in-law, Koos Jordaan, and their 97-year-old mother since January, helping to care for her.

Speaking to the Sunday Times on Monday after Norris’s body was discovered at the Helderberg Nature Reserve, Jordaan said the family was devastated but grateful to finally have closure.

“Saturday was a very difficult day for us because her mother could not stop crying. She kept asking, ‘What did Rika do? Why did she go there?” Jordaan said.

He said the prolonged uncertainty had been extremely difficult for the family, most of whom live in Johannesburg, Pretoria and the North West.

“For three months we did not have any news about her, but we kept going. Even though in the last month four people were rescued in Helderberg Nature Reserve, which is on the west of the mountains and only about 5km from my house,” he said.

Jordaan said Norris knew the area well and regularly walked the routes around the farm.

“On that Saturday morning, she went for a walk with my dog. She knew the route as she would walk two or three times a week. We have a little route around us. I live on a very big farm which is about 4,000 hectares. We live on the slopes of the mountain, but in between orchards,” he said.

Kitty followed the same route when Norris failed to return but could not find her.

“When she got back at about 3pm, she said there was something wrong as she could not see her sister or the dog. I had a search party from our farm, people who live on the farm. We started looking at all the various places and just couldn’t find her,” Jordaan said.

The search continued throughout Saturday night as the family followed tracks, roads and routes through the orchards and plantations stretching up the mountain.

By Sunday, emergency services had joined the search, including police, Wilderness Search and Rescue and the Mountain Club of South Africa.

The mystery was further compounded when eight days after Norris disappeared, her dog returned home alone, muddy and bewildered.

Jordaan said the family initially feared Norris may have drowned.

We always had a suspicion: it was either drowning or she may have walked somewhere where it was dangerous and slipped and fell down the mountain.—  Rika Norris’s brother-in-law, Koos Jordaan

“I flew the helicopter around the farm. We have 13 dams on the farm, of which three are big, and we thought maybe she wanted to cool off and just go for a swim and ended up drowning,” he said.

Police divers searched one of the larger dams where the family suspected she could have drowned. Other smaller dams were emptied, but there was no sign of her.

“We always had a suspicion: it was either drowning or she may have walked somewhere where it was dangerous and slipped and fell down the mountain,” he said.

For about eight weeks, a team searched the area every day, with drones and a helicopter also deployed in the effort.

Then, on August 4, the family appointed a private investigator and also contacted Missing Persons, a Facebook-based organisation that assists in locating missing people.

A breakthrough came when a man contacted the family after seeing Norris’s photograph on the missing persons website.

“He said he had met her in the direction of the Helderberg Nature Reserve and described the dog,” Jordaan said.

The information prompted the family to focus their search on the reserve.

They believe Norris may have walked towards the mountain and attempted to take a shortcut.

“She followed the routes, and then there was a very high hill that she had to come down. There is a cliff right next to it, and she must have slipped,” Jordaan said.

“We don’t know whether she was dehydrated or maybe she was just tired and then slipped and fell there. She just rolled down, and the last drop is into a little ravine or a groove.”

The area had already been searched several times, but thick vegetation, worsened by rain, made it difficult to spot her.

“We had search teams and drones through that area four times, and they didn’t see her because, as a result of the rain, it was so overgrown,” he said.

On Saturday, the family made another attempt, this time with volunteers physically walking the difficult terrain.

“One guy looked down and saw something. We had to let him down with ropes, and there she was,” Jordaan said.

The terrain was so difficult that the rescue team could not retrieve Norris by foot.

“They had to get a helicopter and lift her out. It was truly hard for the family, but at least we’ve got closure now,” he said.

Jordaan said Norris’s mother’s first question when she was told that her daughter had been found was whether she had suffered.

The family is now awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Jordaan said the dangers of the mountainous terrain had become increasingly apparent, with a man from Johannesburg recently rescued after getting into difficulty in the same area.

“He went up on his own to the highest peak and realised he was not going to make his way back before dark. He tried to take a shortcut. The moment you move off the trail, you are in trouble,” Jordaan said.

The man also fell into a deep ravine but was eventually found.

For the Norris family, however, the long search has ended with the painful discovery they had feared for 82 days.

After weeks of uncertainty, they finally have an answer about what happened to Rika.