‘Butcher victim’ alive

THE dismembered human body parts found strewn around Grootfontein and its outskirts about a month ago are not the remains of former Gochas resident Jacoba (‘Wilma’) Olivier.

For the past three and a half weeks, the team of Police detectives investigating the death of the woman whose dissected body parts were found at Grootfontein on September 17, 22 and 25 have been labouring under the assumption that these remains were those of the 30-year-old Olivier. In an embarrassing u-turn, the Police had to confess yesterday that their investigators had been barking up the wrong tree all this time – because Jacoba Olivier is alive and well and still in one piece.According to the Police she has been living obliviously at Outjo over the weeks that detectives trying to solve her supposed murder have been battling to piece together the details of her life in the time leading up to a death that has now turned out not to have been.”It was my own child, and I saw her.But the Lord left her alone and sent her again,” Olivier’s mother, Martha Olivier, speaking in Afrikaans before she broke down in tears, said during a Police media briefing yesterday about her mistaken identification of the remains and the resurrection of her not-dead daughter.The Police announced on September 21 that the severed human head that had been found at Grootfontein four days earlier had been identified as being that of Jacoba Olivier.On September 27, it was further announced that additional body parts that had been found at the town on September 25 “were reconciled to be that of the late Jacoba Wilma Olivier”.Still alive, Olivier however has been living at a part of Outjo called Camp 5 since 2003, Deputy Commissioner Marius Visser, who is leading the investigation into the death of the person whose remains were found at Grootfontein, said yesterday.She was hospitalised at Outjo last week, and on Wednesday someone visited her with a newspaper in which a photograph of her was published, Visser said.This photograph had been released by the police in an effort to get the public to help investigators with more information on the life and especially what was thought to be the last days of the formerly late Jacoba Olivier.When Olivier saw herself in the paper, she contacted the Police at Outjo to alert them that she was not in fact dead, Visser said.He said considering the fact that Olivier’s mother had last seen her some four years ago, in 2003, he could understand why the head and other body parts now lying in the Police Mortuary in Windhoek had been wrongly identified as being Olivier’s remains.After a photograph of the head that was found at Grootfontein on September 17 had been published in local newspapers and broadcast by local television stations, Olivier’s aunt approached the Police to inform them that she was recognising the face on the photo as being her niece’s, Visser said.The aunt was given an opportunity to visit the Police Mortuary to look at the head, and she was positive that this was Olivier’s head, Visser said.The aunt then got Olivier’s mother, who is living at a farm in the Mariental area, to travel to Windhoek.Both the aunt and Olivier’s mother were then taken to the mortuary, and they separately and individually identified the head as being Olivier’s, Visser said.Martha Olivier was back in Windhoek last week, and she was again taken to the mortuary where she once more identified the head as being her daughter’s, Visser said.He said DNA samples had been taken from the body parts found at Grootfontein, but the results from the expected analysis of these samples – aimed at confirming that the remains are part of the same person – have not been received back by the Police investigators yet.Both Visser and Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, the Commanding Officer of the Police’s Public Relations and Liaison Division, steered clear from acknowledging that the incorrect identification of the remains found at Grootfontein could be seen as a setback for the Police’s investigation of the death of that now still unknown woman, and also the other two women found dead and beheaded or dismembered in the Windhoek area over the past two years.The investigation of these deaths continues, and the Namibian Police will eventually “definitely solve these cases”, Amulungu said.According to Visser the fingerprints of the person whose remains were found at Grootfontein have been taken.While it was established that a record of those fingerprints is not found in the database of Namibian identity documents, the prints have also been circulated to other southern African police forces in an effort to check if records of the prints might not be found in other countries in the region, Visser said.In the meantime, though, it is back to square one for Visser and his investigators as far as the identity of the Grootfontein victim goes.Visser again asked anyone recognising the face of the head of which a photo has been released by the Police to contact the investigators at (061) 209 4414 (office hours), or 081 127 5510, while Visser can also be contacted at (061) 209 4221 or 081 128 2380.In an embarrassing u-turn, the Police had to confess yesterday that their investigators had been barking up the wrong tree all this time – because Jacoba Olivier is alive and well and still in one piece.According to the Police she has been living obliviously at Outjo over the weeks that detectives trying to solve her supposed murder have been battling to piece together the details of her life in the time leading up to a death that has now turned out not to have been.”It was my own child, and I saw her.But the Lord left her alone and sent her again,” Olivier’s mother, Martha Olivier, speaking in Afrikaans before she broke down in tears, said during a Police media briefing yesterday about her mistaken identification of the remains and the resurrection of her not-dead daughter.The Police announced on September 21 that the severed human head that had been found at Grootfontein four days earlier had been identified as being that of Jacoba Olivier.On September 27, it was further announced that additional body parts that had been found at the town on September 25 “were reconciled to be that of the late Jacoba Wilma Olivier”. Still alive, Olivier however has been living at a part of Outjo called Camp 5 since 2003, Deputy Commissioner Marius Visser, who is leading the investigation into the death of the person whose remains were found at Grootfontein, said yesterday.She was hospitalised at Outjo last week, and on Wednesday someone visited her with a newspaper in which a photograph of her was published, Visser said.This photograph had been released by the police in an effort to get the public to help investigators with more information on the life and especially what was thought to be the last days of the formerly late Jacoba Olivier.When Olivier saw herself in the paper, she contacted the Police at Outjo to alert them that she was not in fact dead, Visser said.He said considering the fact that Olivier’s mother had last seen her some four years ago, in 2003, he could understand why the head and other body parts now lying in the Police Mortuary in Windhoek had been wrongly identified as being Olivier’s remains.After a photograph of the head that was found at Grootfontein on September 17 had been published in local newspapers and broadcast by local television stations, Olivier’s aunt approached the Police to inform them that she was recognising the face on the photo as being her niece’s, Visser said.The aunt was given an opportunity to visit the Police Mortuary to look at the head, and she was positive that this was Olivier’s head, Visser said.The aunt then got Olivier’s mother, who is living at a farm in the Mariental area, to travel to Windhoek.Both the aunt and Olivier’s mother were then taken to the mortuary, and they separately and individually identified the head as being Olivier’s, Visser said.Martha Olivier was back in Windhoek last week, and she was again taken to the mortuary where she once more identified the head as being her daughter’s, Visser said.He said DNA samples had been taken from the body parts found at Grootfontein, but the results from the expected analysis of these samples – aimed at confirming that the remains are part of the same person – have not been received back by the Police investigators yet.Both Visser and Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, the Commanding Officer of the Police’s Public Relations and Liaison Division, steered clear from acknowledging that the incorrect identification of the remains found at Grootfontein could be seen as a setback for the Police’s investigation of the death of that now still unknown woman, and also the other two women found dead and beheaded or dismembered in the Windhoek area over the past two years.The investigation of these deaths continues, and the Namibian Police will eventually “definitely solve these cases”, Amulungu said.According to Visser the fingerprints of the person whose remains were found at Grootfontein have been taken.While it was established that a record of those fingerprints is not found in the database of Namibian identity documents, the prints have also been circulated to other southern African police forces in an effort to check if records of the prints might not be found in other countries in the region, Visser said.In the meantime, though, it is back to square one for Visser and his investigators as far as the identity of the Grootfontein victim goes.Visser again asked anyone recognising the face of the head of which a photo has been released by the Police to contact the investigators at (061) 209 4414 (office hours), or 081 127 5510, while Visser can also be contacted at (061) 209 4221 or 081 128 2380.