[imagesource: Facebook/Ruth Lawrence]

Ruth Lawrence had been on the run for eight years in connection with the double murder of her two best friends.

Lawrence, from Clontarf, Dublin, escaped Ireland in 2014 with her then-boyfriend, Neville van der Westhuizen (39), and headed for his home country, South Africa.

She was arrested on Tuesday in Bloemfontein, which according to the provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, Captain Christopher Singo, happened after Interpol issued a warrant of arrest.

IOL reports that the warrant was issued for the murders of Eoin O’Connor, 32, and Anthony Keegan, 33.

Image: Supplied

According to The Irish Sun, the victims were best friends and were found eight years ago wrapped in plastic sheeting, buried in a shallow grave on Inchicup Island.

It has been confirmed that they were not criminals or part of a drug gang. A motive for the double killing has not been revealed, though.

Per The Irish Independent, Captain Singo said that vital information about Lawrence and her whereabouts was received on September 28.

She was due to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court today.

Lawrence apparently split up with van der Westhuizen in 2017. He is also wanted in connection with the double murder but is already serving a life sentence here for another terrible murder:

Van [der] Westhuizen was given a 15-year prison sentence for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping at Durban High Court in 2017.

The court heard he and three other men grabbed three teenagers in a local tattoo parlour who they suspected of having stolen a mobile phone that was charging.

They beat the three boys up badly and then forced them to drink a poisonous concoction then let them go but one of the teenagers subsequently died after staggering back home.

Van der Westhuizen is wanted by Irish police in connection with another murder, which The South African cites as the 2014 murder of an alleged drug cartel member in Ireland.

Sounds like Lawrence got mixed up in with some really bad company.

[sources:iol&independent]