Police crack two-year-old murder case

THE long and unrelenting arm of the law caught up with two Windhoek residents last week, when they were arrested on charges of murder and robbery related to the killing of a farmer in the Dordabis area.

The murder and robbery had remained unsolved for almost two years. Information received by the Namibian Police’s Serious Crime Unit last week led to the breakthrough in the investigation of the September 21 2002 murder of farmer Helmut Rohe (58), the Unit’s commander, Detective Chef Inspector Nelius Becker, said yesterday.Becker said the information enabled officers from the Serious Crime Unit to arrest two suspects in connection with the killing of Rohe, who was in effect stoned to death at his farm, Omukaru, in the Dordabis area.The first arrest was carried out on Monday last week, when 28-year-old Moses Uirab (also known as Agab), who is a resident of Okuryangava in Windhoek, was taken into custody.In a second arrest, a resident of the capital’s Okahandja Park residential area, Bartholomeus Immanuel (a.k.a.Ndumba), who is 27 years old, was arrested.Becker said some of the items that the pair was suspected to have stolen from Rohe’s farmhouse had been recovered by the unit’s investigators, led by Detective Inspector Michael Booysen.Among the stolen items were a cellphone, clothing, a radio-cassette player, a video cassette recorder, and a wall clock.The wall clock had been recovered, according to Becker.Uirab and Immanuel appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura on charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances on Thursday.They were remanded in custody until their next scheduled court appearance on August 13.Rohe was alone at his farm at the time of the killing.He was found where he had been battered and stoned to death a day after the attack was thought to have been carried out.Someone who knew Rohe was the first to spot a sign that something untoward might have happened at the farm.On the day after the killing he saw a Volkswagen Kombi belonging to Rohe parked next to the Windhoek-Gobabis main road close to where a permanent Police road block was stationed.The Police suspect that Rohe’s attacker, or attackers, used this vehicle to flee from the farm after the killing, and that they abandoned it before having to pass through the road block.At the time the crime was detected, it was suspected that workers employed at the farm shortly before the incident might have played a role in the events.No records of their identities could be found at the farm though.As a result the trail went cold for almost a year and 10 months until last week’s claimed breakthrough was achieved.Information received by the Namibian Police’s Serious Crime Unit last week led to the breakthrough in the investigation of the September 21 2002 murder of farmer Helmut Rohe (58), the Unit’s commander, Detective Chef Inspector Nelius Becker, said yesterday.Becker said the information enabled officers from the Serious Crime Unit to arrest two suspects in connection with the killing of Rohe, who was in effect stoned to death at his farm, Omukaru, in the Dordabis area.The first arrest was carried out on Monday last week, when 28-year-old Moses Uirab (also known as Agab), who is a resident of Okuryangava in Windhoek, was taken into custody.In a second arrest, a resident of the capital’s Okahandja Park residential area, Bartholomeus Immanuel (a.k.a.Ndumba), who is 27 years old, was arrested.Becker said some of the items that the pair was suspected to have stolen from Rohe’s farmhouse had been recovered by the unit’s investigators, led by Detective Inspector Michael Booysen.Among the stolen items were a cellphone, clothing, a radio-cassette player, a video cassette recorder, and a wall clock.The wall clock had been recovered, according to Becker.Uirab and Immanuel appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura on charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances on Thursday.They were remanded in custody until their next scheduled court appearance on August 13.Rohe was alone at his farm at the time of the killing.He was found where he had been battered and stoned to death a day after the attack was thought to have been carried out.Someone who knew Rohe was the first to spot a sign that something untoward might have happened at the farm.On the day after the killing he saw a Volkswagen Kombi belonging to Rohe parked next to the Windhoek-Gobabis main road close to where a permanent Police road block was stationed.The Police suspect that Rohe’s attacker, or attackers, used this vehicle to flee from the farm after the killing, and that they abandoned it before having to pass through the road block.At the time the crime was detected, it was suspected that workers employed at the farm shortly before the incident might have played a role in the events.No records of their identities could be found at the farm though.As a result the trail went cold for almost a year and 10 months until last week’s claimed breakthrough was achieved.