First up is an update on one of our previous cases, in Episode 13, we covered the case of the Samurai Killer, a case from 2008 where Morne Harmse, 18 years old at the time, murdered 16-year-old, Jacques Pretorius and severely injured three other people with a samurai sword he had taken to school. In early December 2019, I was advised that Harmse had applied for parole. In 2018, when the possibility that he may be released early due to good behaviour was announced, members of law enforcement and members of the forensic psychology community came forward to state that they did not believe Morne was ready for release.
One of the cases that stood out for me in the news recently was the case of Liam Nortje. Liam disappeared in 2017 when he was 3 years old. Liam’s father Nantes Nortje drove away from the premises of his estranged partner, Cheinelle Brooks, with Liam in the car in November 2017. Shortly afterwards he phoned Cheinelle to tell her that she would never see Liam again. Nantes then disappeared. In April 2019, he called a reporter from YOU magazine and told them that Liam was very much alive. When the reporter begged him to just give them Liam’s location, Nantes claimed that he couldn’t because he was protecting Liam from his mother.
In another disturbingly similar case, which I’ve discussed on this show in a minisode before, in November 2019, Onke Mashinini was found guilty and given a life sentence for the murder of 3-year-old Lee Mentoor. Lee’s body has also never been found and although it was hoped that Mashinini would reveal Lee’s whereabouts in his pre-sentencing hearing, he never did. Lee was reported missing in March 2018 after he had been left in the care of Mashinini who was Lee’s mother’s boyfriend at the time.
In the case of the serial killer who was prowling Pretoria early this year, killing homeless people, there have been no further attacks since an arrest was made in June but police are also saying that they do not believe the man arrested was responsible for all of the deaths. Manusi Mothupi was arrested in June for two attempted murder charges. Both victims were homeless and were stabbed but thankfully survived. Mothupi has been denied bail and will appear in court again this month.
After having discussed some pretty heavy cases so far, I thought I would wrap up this minisode with something a little more light-hearted. While crime is never funny, sometimes criminals do some pretty dumb things so here is a collection of some of South Africa’s dumbest criminals from the last decade.
Shownotes
Host: Nicole Engelbrecht
Producer: Nicole Engelbrecht
Music: Snippet from Prime Circle’s – Evidence
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