At first the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS), the unit primarily responsible for the investigation of serial killers in the Johannesburg Police Area,[2] did not link his crimes together, believing that they were the work of two separate serial killers due to the difference in patterns between the murders.
His first murder victim was Dhansuklal Patel who died in hospital after Maake bludgeoned him with a hammer and stole his wallet.
[3] The second criminal profile the police created involved murders of tailors in the inner city area, killed in their shops with hammers.
[3] The connection between the Wemmer Pan murders and the Hammer killings was made by Superintendent Piet Byleveld on 12 January 1998.
Maake took Byleveld to a pawn shop in La Rochelle in the south of Johannesburg where he had sold the bicycle of Gerhard Lavoo, a victim in the Wemmer Pan murders, for R120.
[4] Maake was arrested in December 1997 as a suspect in the Wemmer Pan murders and initially acknowledged responsibility for the crimes.
The Wemmer Pan serial killer trial was one of the earliest uses of GIS to aid in court prosecution by the SAPS.
[6] Cedric Maake was featured in a 13-part M-Net television series called Criminal Minds hosted by Malcolm Gooding.