Horrific Details of Stadler's last hours show Heinrich van Rooyen is NOT the murderer

...A teenager serving a sentence for theft and housebreaking has come forward with horrific details of what he claims were Stadler’s last hours on 10 November 2005. He says he was present when the terrified young woman was gang-raped, chocked, doused in petrol and stabbed …

And he claims her attackers were not van Rooyen, but three men, one of whom was a drug lord for whom he was a runner.

The inmate’s statement to a magistrate could exonerate van Rooyen of one of the murders and implicates the prominent drug lord currently serving 20 years for murder.

During the trial, van Rooyen maintained his innocence of both murders and fingered two other Knysna men and an alleged gangster as the likelier suspects.

Christian Botha, the private investigator on the case said that not only did the police fail to investigate the murders thoroughly, but built a case around van Rooyen, having decided he was guilty from the beginning. He also visited the inmate and said that the youngster showed knowledge of facts related to the crime that were never made public.

The young inmate was standing at the garage to the entrance to Hornlee on the night of Victoria Stadler’s murder. He saw van Rooyen kiss and hug Victoria, that he got out of the car and walked away. Three men then approached Victoria for a lift to Knysna and she agreed. Sometime later, the care returned with three men but Victoria was not with them. They bought a can of petrol and asked him to join them. They took the Noetzie road. Throughout the trip he heard noise from the back of the car and later discovered that the noise had been made by Victoria, who was tied up in the boot.

Parked in the bush, all four of them smoked druges. One opened the boot, pulled Victoria out and the three others took turns in raping her. They partly strangled her, shoved her into the car and then poured petrol over her and the car.

Southern Cape Police Spokesman, Captain Malcolm Poje, said the statement was not being treated as a confession but police were investigating its validity. Poje says though the statement was being investigated, it was up to the van Rooyen family to appeal to the judiciary for the case to be re-opened. The investigation was not a formal one, as the murder case had been concluded, he said.

State Advocate Christhenus van der Vijver said any allegations would have to be investigated by the police first. He would not speculate on whether the matter would return to the courts. Everything relies on the outcome of the police investigation”, he said.

(Information taken from Weekend Argus (Saturday edition) 24 April 2010 and written by Thandanani Mhlanga)

It seems to me that the police and the judiciary are totally inept and corrupt. Someone makes a confession that they were an accessory to a crime, but the person is not charged. He makes the same confession to the magistrate, exonerating Heinrich van Rooyen from this murder but nothing comes of it. The police spokesperson says it is not a valid investigation and that the family are to appeal to the judiciary but the judiciary say that the police must first investigate. Everyone is passing the buck, while Heinrich sits in prison for a crime he did not commit.

I am aware that the family approached the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) with evidence that Heinrich was framed, together with affidavits and proof how Heinrich could not possibly have been the murderer of either Victoria Stadler or Jessica Wheeler. Alan D Elsdon has worked on this investigation for three years and submitted his findings on behalf of the family and nothing has come of it. It is a disgrace and a travesty that we cannot trust our judiciary or our police to do what they are tasked to do. They do as they please with impunity and they protect one another. With Director Trollip dead, perhaps the IPID won’t mind doing what they are supposed to do and that is to investigate crimes committed by police. Perjury by police is a crime. And it is criminal to frame and innocent person.