Gauteng police were on Thursday still searching for the man who killed a woman and injured her daughter, apparently with an axe, at the Great Yard scrapyard in Vereeniging.

"No arrests have been made but we are investigating. Our sniffer dog could on Wednesday not pick up anything because there had been a lot of movement in that yard," Captain Shado Mashobane said on Thursday.

Heila Pienaar (41), was attacked at the family's scrapyard on Wednesday, with what police said was a sharp object. Beeld newspaper reported that it had possibly been an axe.

Her daughter, Charmaine (18), was left with a fractured skull and was in a serious but stable condition at the Vereeniging Medi-Clinic.

Beeld reported on Thursday that Charmaine lay helplessly alongside the body of her mother until the two were discovered at 3pm, about three hours after the attack. About R2000 was stolen from them.

The two women had been alone at the family business as Pienaar's husband, Danie, was out selling scrap metal in Brakpan.

According to a family spokesperson quoted by the paper, Danie got worried after numerous unsuccessful calls to his daughter's phone.

"My brother-in-law had tried unsuccessfully to get hold of Charmaine and she did not answer her phone," Marius Vosloo was quoted as saying.

On arrival at the scrapyard, Danie was confronted by the grisly scene and a badly injured daughter who was screaming for help.

"Through the help of a neighbour, he managed to call police and Netcare 911," Mashobane said.

Although no arrests have been made, Vosloo told Beeld that Charmaine revealed that she knew who the attacker was.