Lotz: Gang members 'confess'
2007-12-12 09:08
Tisha Steyn
Stellenbosch - A woman who alleged she was with a tik gang during the murder of Inge Lotz on March 16 2005 revealed her version of events in a statement on Tuesday.
Two members of the tik gang who were involved in drug related crimes in the Stellenbosch area on Monday started giving statements about the murder. They alleged they saw what happened.
These statements were taken by private detectives Daryl Els and Christian Botha, who was appointed by Fred van der Vyver's father shortly after the murder of Inge Lotz.
Van der Vyver was found not guilty of the murder on his girlfriend on November 29.
Steal from her
The six members of the tik gang, five men and a woman, allegedly followed Lotz from the Neelsie student centre to her flat in Klein Welgevonden. The aim was apparently to steal her laptop and cellphone.
One of them, a man who made a statement on Monday, said they obtained access to the complex because one of them knew Lotz.
Three of them went to Lotz's flat while the other three waited outside.
One of these three said they waited in the car, a white Toyota Tazz, while smoking tik.
Two of them later walked towards Lotz's flat.
'Trouble'
Suddenly one of the three who was inside the flat came running towards the gate with a remote control for the gate in his hand. He told them to "run, there is trouble".
While they went up the stairs towards Lotz's flat, the two other suspects, one of them with a knife in his hand, came out of the flat.
According to the suspect he and the woman looked through the window and he saw Lotz on the couch. Blood was dripping down her arm.
They ran away and had to jump over an electric fence. According to the woman's statement, the man helped her to get onto a pillar and then they managed to get over the electric fence. When they got outside, the other suspects had already driven off. They then had to walk a long way through a field until they got home.
According to the female member of the gang one of the suspects, who was her boyfriend at that stage, silenced her when she wanted to talk about the murder, warning her that the other suspects would "hurt her".
According to her statement she didn't lay a charge against them, as she was afraid of them.
The statements by these two suspects corroborates statements made earlier by the man, but not with a statement taken by inspector Deon Clive de Villiers on June 20 2006.
On the basis of the latter statement, the suspect's testimony was rejected by Van Zyl during a trial within the trial.
- Die Burger