Snuff-movie house deserted

2003-10-08 23:36

Adriaan Basson

Johannesburg - The clothes worn by Tanya Flowerday on the night she was killed were apparently handed back to her parents to be washed, said a source close to the investigation.

Flowerday is possibly the country's first victim of a snuff movie.

The "damaged" evidence and the possibility that only her torn panties were sent for forensic tests could hinder the case, the source said.

The police said on Wednesday that there was no proof of this, but that such negligent actions would need to be addressed.

According to inspector Amanda Roestoff, a police spokesperson, the station commander of Linden police station would have to investigate the allegations.

Roestoff would not, however, comment any further as the case was sub judice.

A legal expert said that it was legal to possess and import a snuff movie in South Africa, but that it was illegal to make or distribute such a film, which sees the victim raped and then murdered on camera.

On Wednesday, it also came to light that Flowerday's friend, who allegedly arranged the rape and murder for money, had previous criminal charges against him.

Flowerday, 18, who died on the night of Friday, June 13, apparently spent her last few harrowing hours in a house in Fontainbleau, Randburg.

Beeld visited the house on Wednesday where the teenager was allegedly filmed while being raped by three men - her friend and two foreigners - and then murdered.

The house is occupied by an unemployed woman, a former art teacher and her two daughters.

On Wednesday morning, however, no one was home.

From the outside, many of the rooms looked empty and in one room a number of paintings lay on the floor.

Flowerday's body was found on the sidewalk of a Darrenwood house on Saturday June 14.

According to Elizabeth Sopane, a domestic worker at the Darrenwood house, Flowerday's body was found in a sitting position against a wall.

She said that people who had seen her, at first thought it was a doll.

Sopane said that she heard noises outside the house early that Saturday morning but that she took little notice.

"The dogs barked, but the car pulled off quickly. I thought it was drunk people." Before his arrest, the suspect worked for a film company.

One of his colleagues said he was a quiet person who was never late for work.

"When police said they were looking for him you could have bowled me over with a feather. He was the only new chap on the set and no one knew him."

- Beeld