Schiefer’s confession revealed

“I SHOT my mother and father at home.”

With this matter-of-fact statement double murder suspect Romeo Schiefer started a confession which he made to a senior Police officer on January 19 2008.The contents of Schiefer’s confession were revealed to Judge Naomi Shivute when Schiefer’s trial resumed in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday. The confession was ruled admissible as evidence in the trial in August last year.Schiefer (23) is denying that he is guilty of the murder of his parents, Frans and Francina Schiefer, both aged 50, in their home in Khomasdal in Windhoek on the evening of January 18 2008.While battling to get his confession disallowed as evidence in his trial, Schiefer claimed that he had been threatened and unduly influenced by Police officers in an effort to get him to make the statement before Detective Chief Inspector Gerrit Viljoen.He did not want to respond to answers about the contents of his confession when he testified in April last year, though.Schiefer told Viljoen that he had failed his Grade 10 examinations during 2006, and was repeating subjects with Namcol during 2007, Judge Shivute heard yesterday.He however failed to hand in his last projects for four subjects at Namcol, and this made his mother angry, he told Viljoen.He was set to receive his exam results from Namcol around January 21 2008, he said.On the evening of January 18 2008 he was at home when his mother swore at him and accused him of not wanting to learn and of wasting her money and walking around doing nothing, Schiefer said.“That triggered me and I decided that this is enough,” he said to Viljoen.Shocking events were to follow.Schiefer said he went to a drawer where knives were kept and took one.“I stabbed my mother, don’t know where I stabbed her and I went to my father’s room where he was asleep. I closed the door, went to the cupboard and took his pistol,” he said.“I was crying and a teardrop fell on him and he turned,” Schiefer said. “I first shot him through the pillow which I hold in front of the pistol. I went out of the sleeping room and found my mother still in the kitchen. I went out of the kitchen and my mother closed the door. I shot three or four shots through the door. I forced the door open and went in. I found that my mother was inside their sleeping room and the door was locked. I kicked the door open and went inside. I fired one shot in the air and my mother storm at me and I shot at her several times.”After he had sent a friend of his who had arrived at the house away to buy some cellphone air time for him, he went back into the house, he said.“While inside I start to stab my mother again but I cannot recall where I stabbed her,” he said. “I left the pistol on the table in the kitchen.”Schiefer said he later went out with a friend. By about 01h00 the next morning he received a phone call from one of his brothers, who told him there were problems at home.The court has heard that Mr Schiefer was found dead on his bed, with a single gunshot wound to his head. Mrs Schiefer lay on the floor in the same bedroom. She had been shot at least nine times. She had also been stabbed, with a broken-off knife blade still found stuck in her neck.Schiefer ended his statement to Viljoen by saying: “I think there is something wrong with me since I was a small boy. I also consulted a physiologist several times.” The latter is believed to be a mistaken reference to a psychologist.The trial is due to continue today.

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