The TCSA:Spotlight minisodes cover true crime cases that are in the South African media right now and updates on previous episodes. This week we have updates on the Krugersdorp Killers case, a statement from the One Strong Voice Foundation on the Amahle Thabethe case and a discussion on the tragic murder of Meghan Cremer.
In a surprising move this week, Zephany Nurse revealed her true identity and announced that she has co-authored a book about her life. Zephany whose real name we now know is Miché Solomon was kidnapped from a hospital just hours after her birth on the 28th of April 1997. 18 years later, she was reunited with her birth parents after her sister’s classmates had started commenting that the two looked very similar. DNA tests proved that they were related. Courts had sealed the girl’s true identity at the time. Her kidnapper Lavona Solomon was sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping although she still maintains that she did not take the child and that she was given the baby to raise by another, unnamed woman, who told her the child had been abandoned. The book which has been written about the case is called Zephany: Two Mothers, One Daughter.
The book will be interesting to read, and I will leave a link at the end of this blog post and also on our True Crime Books page, where you can buy the book in e-format on Amazon. This is an affiliate link and True Crime South Africa will earn a commission from Amazon on your purchase which helps to support the show. I will definitely cover this case in a full episode at some stage.
We covered the Krugersdorp Killers in Episode 4 and this week the last three defendants received their sentences. Zak Valentine was given eight life sentences, to run concurrently, with 66 years for the other counts against him which included charges for attempting to defraud Discovery Life by faking his own death. Cecilia Steyn who was believed to be the mastermind of the group was given 13 life sentences to run concurrently with 152 years for the other counts against her. The last of the group was the wild card. Marcel Steyn was the youngest accused and was only 14 years old when she was involved in her first murder. Her brother, Le Roux took a plea deal and testified against his fellow accused. He was given 25 years in prison. Marcel on the other hand had initially protested her innocence and only changed her tune when she realised that no one was falling for her innocent little girl routine. The judge took this deceptiveness into account and said that he didn’t really think that her remorse was heartfelt. He sentenced the now 21-year-old to 7 life sentences to run concurrently with 144 years for the other charges. At least for the 11 victims’ families, there is now some sense of closure and they can start to build new lives without their loved one
SHOWNOTES:
Host: Nicole Engelbrecht
Producer: Nicole Engelbrecht
Music: Snippet from Prime Circle’s Evidence
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