Cape Town – The 40-year-old man arrested for the murder of three-year-old Courtney Pieters in Elsies River, rented a space in her family’s home, News24 has reliably learnt.

Further information was not immediately available.

The man was arrested on Sunday after an “intense” investigation by police, Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said a statement.

There was a heavy police presence in front of the home on Sunday afternoon, but at the time police said it was a part of “routine investigation”.

Pieters was last seen playing in the street in front of her home in Elsies River on May 4.

Her body was found in a shallow grave beside abandoned railroad tracks on Saturday afternoon.

An autopsy still had to be concluded to establish her cause of death, police told News24 on Sunday afternoon.