Missing man not kidnapped

THE mystery that gripped Observatory after 43-year-old Paule-Henry Botha, a resident of Cranko Road, disappeared on his morning jog dissolved when the Woodstock Police viewed CCTV footage of him withdrawing money and boarding a train at the Cape Town Station.
Overstretched Woodstock policemen had to spend hours requesting and searching through footage after distraught housemates of the Observatory-based chef reported him missing. 
On the day of his disappearance, R 3000 was withdrawn from his account at Cape Town station and fear gripped Observatory as desperate missing-person alerts were circulated. But fears that he had been kidnapped evaporated after the footage showed him calmly boarding a long-distance train by himself.
Hilton Malila, media liaison for the Woodstock police, said that the police closed the case after seeing the footage, saying that he clearly left of his own free will. Bank ATM footage, as well as CCTV coverage of the Cape Town station, showed Paule carrying two tog bags, and wore a yellow jacket and blue jeans. 
This was different from the jogging clothes in which his best friend and house mate, Jana Cloete, saw him last. Jana and her network went through harrowing days and nights as they desperately searched for their missing friend. She took off work to search. Paule’s employers, for whom he worked as a chef and butler, had hired an expensive private detective. 
Paule's former partner flew down to Cape Town from Johannesburg to help with the search, and even called in the help of a psychic. 
On the morning of Paule’s alleged abduction, he dropped Jana and her boyfriend at the Obs train station. It was the last time she would see Paule, who was dressed for his usual morning jog.
Jana sounded the alert when Paule did not return home, and she saw his car keys, cell phone and work clothes laid out in his room as though he had never returned from his jog. 
While the search was still under way, Jana became emotional when she told ObsLife that she sent him many emails just in case he had run away, but was convinced that he would not do such a thing.
But after the news emerged of the CCTV footage, she responded to ObsLife’s questions via email: “I am tired, tired, tired. I don't really know what I feel. I do know I am so thankful that he is alive and not hurt or in trouble somewhere. I also know that it must have not been easy for him and something pushed him to it. I am feeling sorry for him and hope that he will be OK. He must be going through hectic emotions, I imagine, or perhaps not? I cannot say. I don't know if any of us really ever get to know other people. People scare me a bit now."