Storeroom murder suspect granted bail

THE father of a former Windhoek school caretaker who is accused of having murdered an alleged prostitute in the capital before he hid her corpse in a storeroom for more than a year, was granted bail of N$3 000 last week.

Hendrik Johannes Venter (67), who is the father of former Centaurus Secondary School caretaker Johannes Hendrik Venter (44), had been in custody for more than five months on the same murder charge that his son faces by the time Magistrate Tuyenikelao Haikango granted him bail on Wednesday last week. Venter Snr.’s legal representatives have been trying to get him released on bail because he is said to be in frail health, which they claimed was being worsened by his incarceration while the investigation of the case against his son and him had been continuing.Venter Snr. was arrested on February 6.According to the Police that was after his son had claimed that he, Venter Jnr., was not in fact responsible for the death of the woman whose partly decomposed remains were found hidden in a locked storeroom on the grounds of Centaurus Secondary School on May 23 last year.He allegedly told the Police that his father had in fact apparently killed the women, whom the two men had allegedly picked up in Windhoek with the intention of paying her to have sex with them.Venter Jnr. had initially told the Police that he had picked up the woman for the same purpose, and had apparently throttled her to death in an effort to quieten her down when she started screaming at him after they had had intercourse.The woman is suspected to have been a former resident of Rehoboth, Maritsa Dorethy van Wyk, who would have been 27 years old at the time that the killing is suspected to have taken place around early April 2002.An extended wait for the results of genetic tests that were supposed to have been done to conclusively determine whether the remains were those of Van Wyk, have taken up much of the time that the case has been postponed repeatedly for further investigations to be done.The case against both Venter Snr. and Venter Jnr. was postponed once more last Wednesday.This time they were informed that the purpose of their next scheduled court appearance, on September 7, will be so that they can plead to the charge or charges that they are set to face at their trial.Venter Jnr. will be remaining in custody in the meantime.Once freed on bail, Venter Snr. was informed, he has to report to the Windhoek Police Station on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, each day in the morning and also in the late afternoon.Venter Snr.’s legal representatives have been trying to get him released on bail because he is said to be in frail health, which they claimed was being worsened by his incarceration while the investigation of the case against his son and him had been continuing.Venter Snr. was arrested on February 6.According to the Police that was after his son had claimed that he, Venter Jnr., was not in fact responsible for the death of the woman whose partly decomposed remains were found hidden in a locked storeroom on the grounds of Centaurus Secondary School on May 23 last year.He allegedly told the Police that his father had in fact apparently killed the women, whom the two men had allegedly picked up in Windhoek with the intention of paying her to have sex with them.Venter Jnr. had initially told the Police that he had picked up the woman for the same purpose, and had apparently throttled her to death in an effort to quieten her down when she started screaming at him after they had had intercourse.The woman is suspected to have been a former resident of Rehoboth, Maritsa Dorethy van Wyk, who would have been 27 years old at the time that the killing is suspected to have taken place around early April 2002.An extended wait for the results of genetic tests that were supposed to have been done to conclusively determine whether the remains were those of Van Wyk, have taken up much of the time that the case has been postponed repeatedly for further investigations to be done.The case against both Venter Snr. and Venter Jnr. was postponed once more last Wednesday.This time they were informed that the purpose of their next scheduled court appearance, on September 7, will be so that they can plead to the charge or charges that they are set to face at their trial.Venter Jnr. will be remaining in custody in the meantime.Once freed on bail, Venter Snr. was informed, he has to report to the Windhoek Police Station on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, each day in the morning and also in the late afternoon.