Court hears of brutal farm murder
2011-03-08 23:15
Pretoria - A Dutch immigrant couple was found in pools of blood after both were killed on their dairy farm two years ago, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria heard on Tuesday.
Police witnesses described the gruesome scene where farmer Johannes van den Bosch, 63, and his wife Jacobi, 60, were murdered on their farm at Mooiplaats, east of Pretoria.
Johannes was bludgeoned to death while tending to calves in the dairy on the morning of Easter Friday 2009.
His wife died on the floor of her home after being repeatedly stabbed in the upper body.
One of their former workers, 27-year-old Akona Innocent Gini of Witbank, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the couple and robbing them of their cellphones, cash, and a bunch of keys.
One of the couple's sons, Joost van den Bosch, testified his brother Wim phoned him early that morning after discovering their parents' bodies.
He later identified a bunch of keys that was fished out of the farm dam by police, as belonging to his father.
He said the farm was safeguarded by an electric fence, dogs and burglar bars and one would have had to plan carefully to get in.
According to Van den Bosch jnr, there was a burglary at his parents' home about six months before they were murdered.
The first policeman at the scene, Inspector Francois Nolte, testified that the late Mr Van den Bosch's son Wim had phoned him in tears, asking for help because his parents had been murdered.
When he arrived, Wim van den Bosch took him into the house, where Mrs Van den Bosch was lying in a large pool of blood, and to the dairy, where Mr Van den Bosch was lying in the calves' pen.
The son told him he had become suspicious when he found his father's Boerboel dogs at the gate, and not locked up as usual and the back door, which his mother always left open for his father, still locked.
Nolte said four different suspects were brought in for questioning within days after the incident, but none of them could be linked to the murders.
Investigating officer Sergeant Jaco Botha testified he had discovered a steel pipe in the drain at the dairy where Mr Van den Bosch was murdered.
He also found a knife in a wooden block on the kitchen counter which appeared as if it might have been used as the murder weapon.
When police returned to the scene after the murder, they had the farm dam drained and discovered Bosch snr's keys.
The trial continues.
- SAPA
