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Missing murder dossier frees 2
19/01/2007 06:40 - (SA)
Tisha Steyn, Die Burger
Knysna - The case against two men who were linked to the murder of Peter McHelm of Hornlee in November 2005 has been scrapped from the roll in Knysna magistrate's court.
Daan Dercksen, who represented Byron Moses, 24, said on Wednesday that his client and Aubrey Komoetie, 28, both had been released on Wednesday morning "after it appeared that the dossier had gone missing".
McHelm, 48, disappeared on the same day as Victoria Stadler, 20.
McHelm's decomposed body was found on November 16 in the bushes across the road from Noetzie, a stone's throw from where Stadler's body had been found in a similar state a day earlier.
The hired car that McHelm had been using before he disappeared was found in Cape Town.
Moses was arrested shortly after he returned from Cape Town, on the day that McHelm's body was found.
Komoetie was arrested shortly afterwards.
DPP 'didn't receive it'
Dercksen said: "According to the State, the dossier apparently was sent from the regional court management in George to the director of public prosecutions in Cape Town for them to decide what the charges would be and in which court the case would be tried."
The original charges against the two men were murder, kidnapping and car theft.
Magistrate Grobler scrapped the case from the roll and sent Moses and Kamoetie home after they had been awaiting trial for 14 months in Knysna Prison.
Heinrich van Rooyen, also of Hornlee, was arrested about a month after Stadler's body was found, in connection with her murder and that of Jessica Wheeler, whose body was found in the garden of St George's Anglican Church in Knysna's main road on October 13.
- Die Burger
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