Fourth suspect charged in farm massacre case

A FOURTH person has been arrested and charged in connection with the massacre of eight people at a farm between Rehoboth and Kalkrand in March last year.

The Police arrested Stoney Raymond Neidel (28), a resident of Rehoboth’s Block E residential area, on Friday. Yesterday, Neidel appeared before Assistant Magistrate Ria Bekker in the Mariental Magistrate’s Court to be officially added as an accused person in the case against the three other three men accused of being involved in the mass killing.The massacre took place at farm Kareeboomkolk, some 50 km south of Rehoboth on March 5 last year.Neidel has been remanded in custody until tomorrow, when he and his three co-accused in the case, Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (28), and brothers Sylvester Beukes (21) and Gavin Beukes (24), are scheduled to appear in court again.All four of them now face eight counts of murder, in addition to charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, stock theft, theft of a motor vehicle, and arson.When they re-appear in court tomorrow, the four suspects are set to be informed of the Prosecutor General’s decision about whether the State will continue to prosecute them in connection with the Kareeboomkolk mass murder, and on what charges and in which court that would be.Mariental’s Magistrate Alweendo Venatius was not available yesterday to preside over the court proceedings where the four are to be told of the Prosecutor General’s decision.A Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer James Matengu, said on enquiry yesterday that the investigating officer in charge of the Police’s probe into the massacre arrested Neidel on instructions from a prosecutor working with the case.Another source told The Namibian that it is alleged that the Beukes brothers stored items that were stolen from the farm at the time of the killings – this included livestock – at premises under Neidel’s control at Rehoboth.The Beukes brothers were the first of the suspects to be arrested after part-time farmers Justus and Elzabé and farmworkers Settie and Sonnyboy Swartbooi, who were brothers, the latter’s pregnant wife, Hilma Engelbrecht, her and her husband’s children, Christina Engelbrecht and Regina Gertze, and a nephew of Hilma Engelbrecht, Deon Gertze, were all shot dead at Kareeboomkolk during the massacre.The bodies of some of the victims were also set on fire.At a first appearance in the Mariental Magistrate’s Court, Sylvester Beukes told the court that he had killed the eight victims.He indicated that his prime target was Justus Erasmus (Snr), who was killed because Beukes said he wanted to take revenge against him for ill-treatment that he claimed to have received from the farm owner when he was working for him previously.The other people, Beukes claimed, were killed in a bid not to leave behind any eyewitnesses who could implicate him in the killing of Erasmus.About a week after he had made these self-incriminating claims, Beukes however made another sworn statement in front of a Police officer, in which he alleged that Shorty Erasmus had in fact asked him to kill his parents in return for a promised cut of the proceeds of life insurance policies that were to be paid out on the death of the Erasmus couple.Erasmus Jnr was arrested on March 15 last year as a result of Beukes’s claims.Erasmus Jnr is the only one of the suspects to have been released on bail thus far.He was granted bail of N$20 000 after spending a week in Police custody.Erasmus Jnr.pleaded not guilty on all charges in early September last year.Yesterday, Neidel appeared before Assistant Magistrate Ria Bekker in the Mariental Magistrate’s Court to be officially added as an accused person in the case against the three other three men accused of being involved in the mass killing.The massacre took place at farm Kareeboomkolk, some 50 km south of Rehoboth on March 5 last year. Neidel has been remanded in custody until tomorrow, when he and his three co-accused in the case, Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (28), and brothers Sylvester Beukes (21) and Gavin Beukes (24), are scheduled to appear in court again.All four of them now face eight counts of murder, in addition to charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, stock theft, theft of a motor vehicle, and arson.When they re-appear in court tomorrow, the four suspects are set to be informed of the Prosecutor General’s decision about whether the State will continue to prosecute them in connection with the Kareeboomkolk mass murder, and on what charges and in which court that would be.Mariental’s Magistrate Alweendo Venatius was not available yesterday to preside over the court proceedings where the four are to be told of the Prosecutor General’s decision.A Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer James Matengu, said on enquiry yesterday that the investigating officer in charge of the Police’s probe into the massacre arrested Neidel on instructions from a prosecutor working with the case.Another source told The Namibian that it is alleged that the Beukes brothers stored items that were stolen from the farm at the time of the killings – this included livestock – at premises under Neidel’s control at Rehoboth.The Beukes brothers were the first of the suspects to be arrested after part-time farmers Justus and Elzabé and farmworkers Settie and Sonnyboy Swartbooi, who were brothers, the latter’s pregnant wife, Hilma Engelbrecht, her and her husband’s children, Christina Engelbrecht and Regina Gertze, and a nephew of Hilma Engelbrecht, Deon Gertze, were all shot dead at Kareeboomkolk during the massacre.The bodies of some of the victims were also set on fire.At a first appearance in the Mariental Magistrate’s Court, Sylvester Beukes told the court that he had killed the eight victims.He indicated that his prime target was Justus Erasmus (Snr), who was killed because Beukes said he wanted to take revenge against him for ill-treatment that he claimed to have received from the farm owner when he was working for him previously.The other people, Beukes claimed, were killed in a bid not to leave behind any eyewitnesses who could implicate him in the killing of Erasmus.About a week after he had made these self-incriminating claims, Beukes however made another sworn statement in front of a Police officer, in which he alleged that Shorty Erasmus had in fact asked him to kill his parents in return for a promised cut of the proceeds of life insurance policies that were to be paid out on the death of the Erasmus couple.Erasmus Jnr was arrested on March 15 last year as a result of Beukes’s claims.Erasmus Jnr is the only one of the suspects to have been released on bail thus far.He was granted bail of N$20 000 after spending a week in Police custody.Erasmus Jnr.pleaded not guilty on all charges in early September last year.