Man held for crossbow killing
2003-08-30 01:50
Johannesburg - One of the police's top detectives has arrested a 41-year-old man for the bizarre cross-bow murder of a mother of twin boys on the West Rand last year.
Sibille Zanner, 39, of Fourways in Sandton, was shot with an arrow at a short distance during the evening of September 25. The arrow pierced her second vertebra and she was paralysed instantly.
She died with the arrow in her neck in the Flora clinic the next day.
Zanner was visiting friends who were giving her pottery classes in Kloofendal, Roodepoort, when the incident occurred.
Passers-by saw her lying on her back next to her car.
The police said at the time that they were investigating the possibility of an assassination. They excluded the possibility of an accident or robbery, because they found all her possessions on her.
They also thought that Zanner knew her attacker, because it seemed as if she had been walking towards the person when she was shot.
Zanner's cell phone, car keys and handbag were lying next to her, as well as a huge amount of cash and a cheque book.
Superintendent Piet Byleveldt, a well-known serial expert of the Johannesburg unit against serious crime, took over the case in May this year and he arrested the man on Thursday as the suspect was leaving for work.
The police declined to give details prior to the man's court appearance.
Superintendent Chris Wilken, police spokesperson, says the investigation is continuing.
The Zanners immigrated from Germany to South Africa 15 years ago and settled in Johannesburg. Zanner was the secretary of Hein Spreitzer, executive chief of Steinmuller, an engineering company in Rivonia, for more than a decade.
Frank Zanner, Sibille's husband, said at the time that he would remain in the country after his wife's death.
"My wife loved everything here. We went to the bushveld virtually every weekend. She would never have left", he said.