Millionaire heiress shot dead day after 'close friend' found with gunshot wounds at same estate

Police in South Africa are investigating after two people died of gunshot wounds on a private hunting ranch in two days.

Local media reports that German shipping heiress Caroline von Rantzau, 26, died from a gunshot in her room on 1 June at the Leeuwfontein estate, a day after 44-year-old Arno Koën had been found dead there.

Police said that both victims had died from gunshots, Koën appearing to have died from a 9-mm cartridge and von Rantzau from a .357 round thought to have been fired from a hunting rifle.

Koën was a financial manager for the von Rantzau family, autopsies on the bodies are being performed to gain further information about the fates of the two people.

von Rantzau's family owned the Leeuwfontein estate, a hunting reserve in South Africa where wealthy individuals could go on trophy hunting safaris.

Police say autopsies will shed more light on the matter (Nigel Jared/Getty Images)

The hunting rifle thought to have been the weapon fired to kill von Rantzau is believed to have come from the gun cabinet of Caroline's father Eberhart von Rantzau, owner of shipping liner company Deutsche Afrika-Linien GmbH.

While the police continue their investigation there have been no arrests made, police spokesman Malesela Ledwaba said the course of the investigation and potential future arrests would depend upon information from the autopsies.

He said: "The results of the autopsy will give investigators information about the actual causes of death and will determine whether investigations will be launched against other persons."

The danger to hunters has typically been finding themselves on the other end of the exchange with the animals they'd gone out to shoot.

Earlier this year wealthy hunter Ernie Dosio, 75, was trampled to death by African elephants while he had been stalking antelopes in Gabon.

Caroline von Rantzau, 26, is one of the people shot dead at the South African estate (Instagram)

While hunters in South Africa have died the culprit has typically been the animal they were trying to hunt, as was the case for 52-year-old Asher Watkins who last year was killed when he was attacked by a buffalo he'd been hunting.

Violent crime in safari areas in South Africa is also sadly a concern.

Earlier this year the bodies of two tourists, Ernst and Dina Marais, had been found stabbed to death with their bodies tied up and dumped in a river where crocodiles lived.

Police suspected they'd been killed by poachers in the safari park they'd been on holiday in.

Two people were since arrested in connection with their killing after the couple's stolen vehicle was recovered in Mozambique.