Police press on in quest to find Mabula’s killer

TEN months and counting after one of Namibia’s most sensational murders in recent times, an empty-handed team of Police investigators is still soldiering on in their search for the person – or people – who killed and beheaded a young Windhoek resident, Juanita Mabula, in late September last year.

After more than 10 months of detective work, the Police have still not been able to arrest a suspect – but that does not mean that they are abandoning the search for Mabula’s killer, or killers, any time soon, the leader of the team of detectives trying to solve the Mabula case, Deputy Commissioner Marius Visser, said yesterday. The investigation into Mabula’s violent death is continuing and will not just fade away with time, Visser made it clear when he was approached by The Namibian for an update on progress in the case.”It will not just go and lie still,” Visser said about the ongoing investigation.At the same time, he said, this was not the sort of murder that could be expected to be solved in a short space of time.At this stage, the investigators are still waiting for the results of forensic analyses of various possible pieces of evidence that have been gathered during the investigation, Visser said.The results are expected from South Africa, where the collected samples have been sent, he said.Whereas the initial indications had been that it would take up to six months to receive these test results back, this period has since been extended.As a result the investigation team is still waiting to hear the outcome of the analyses and comparison of pieces of potential evidence – and whether they have been heading in the right direction with their investigation, or will have to return to the drawing board in a renewed effort to find the culprit responsible for Mabula’s death.With Mabula’s death being investigated in conjunction with parallel investigations into the deaths of another two young women who were found killed in Windhoek and Rehoboth late last year, Visser has not been able to either confirm or rule out that the Police have a serial killer on their hands in these three cases.All three these murder victims were young women whose bodies were found naked.Mabula’s body was found lying next to a southern section of the Western Bypass in Windhoek, near the turn-off to the Windhoek Turf Club, on the morning of September 25 last year.Mabula’s head had been cut off.Her head was only found on October 24 last year, where it lay in a plastic shopping bag next to a road culvert some 50 kilometres from Windhoek on the main road to Rehoboth.Mabula had last been seen alive in the vicinity of a nightclub in Windhoek during the early morning hours of the day before she was found dead.She was killed a week before her 22nd birthday.A little over a month before the discovery of Mabula’s decapitated body made headlines in Namibia, the body of another young woman, the 22-year-old Melanie Janse, had also been found lying next to the Western Bypass.Like Mabula would be a month later, Janse was also discovered naked, but her body was found in the vicinity of the Van Eck power station further north along the Bypass.From injuries to Mabula’s head it was concluded that she had been hit over the head with an unknown object.Janse is thought to have been strangled.Three months after Mabula’s murder, the body of a third young woman, 18-year-old Viola Swartbooi, was found buried in a shallow grave at Rehoboth.That was on December 28 last year.Swartbooi had last been seen alive 12 days earlier.Because her body was already in a state of decomposition, the cause of her death could not be established with certainty.During the investigation into the murder of Mabula and the deaths of the other two women, Visser has been in contact with a South African psychologist who is regarded as an expert on serial killings in South Africa, Dr Micki Pistorius, to get some guidance on possible ways to approach the investigation of the three young women’s deaths.He has in the meantime also met a supposed South African psychic, Sue du Randt, who had offered to use her alleged supernatural abilities to help with the investigation, Visser said yesterday.Her participation has however not yet borne fruit for the investigations either.The investigation into Mabula’s violent death is continuing and will not just fade away with time, Visser made it clear when he was approached by The Namibian for an update on progress in the case.”It will not just go and lie still,” Visser said about the ongoing investigation.At the same time, he said, this was not the sort of murder that could be expected to be solved in a short space of time.At this stage, the investigators are still waiting for the results of forensic analyses of various possible pieces of evidence that have been gathered during the investigation, Visser said.The results are expected from South Africa, where the collected samples have been sent, he said.Whereas the initial indications had been that it would take up to six months to receive these test results back, this period has since been extended. As a result the investigation team is still waiting to hear the outcome of the analyses and comparison of pieces of potential evidence – and whether they have been heading in the right direction with their investigation, or will have to return to the drawing board in a renewed effort to find the culprit responsible for Mabula’s death.With Mabula’s death being investigated in conjunction with parallel investigations into the deaths of another two young women who were found killed in Windhoek and Rehoboth late last year, Visser has not been able to either confirm or rule out that the Police have a serial killer on their hands in these three cases.All three these murder victims were young women whose bodies were found naked.Mabula’s body was found lying next to a southern section of the Western Bypass in Windhoek, near the turn-off to the Windhoek Turf Club, on the morning of September 25 last year.Mabula’s head had been cut off.Her head was only found on October 24 last year, where it lay in a plastic shopping bag next to a road culvert some 50 kilometres from Windhoek on the main road to Rehoboth.Mabula had last been seen alive in the vicinity of a nightclub in Windhoek during the early morning hours of the day before she was found dead.She was killed a week before her 22nd birthday.A little over a month before the discovery of Mabula’s decapitated body made headlines in Namibia, the body of another young woman, the 22-year-old Melanie Janse, had also been found lying next to the Western Bypass.Like Mabula would be a month later, Janse was also discovered naked, but her body was found in the vicinity of the Van Eck power station further north along the Bypass.From injuries to Mabula’s head it was concluded that she had been hit over the head with an unknown object.Janse is thought to have been strangled.Three months after Mabula’s murder, the body of a third young woman, 18-year-old Viola Swartbooi, was found buried in a shallow grave at Rehoboth.That was on December 28 last year.Swartbooi had last been seen alive 12 days earlier.Because her body was already in a state of decomposition, the cause of her death could not be established with certainty.During the investigation into the murder of Mabula and the deaths of the other two women, Visser has been in contact with a South African psychologist who is regarded as an expert on serial killings in South Africa, Dr Micki Pistorius, to get some guidance on possible ways to approach the investigation of the three young women’s deaths.He has in the meantime also met a supposed South African psychic, Sue du Randt, who had offered to use her alleged supernatural abilities to help with the investigation, Visser said yesterday.Her participation has however not yet borne fruit for the investigations either.