Eccentric local millionaire disappears

MYSTERY surrounds the disappearance of 72-year-old Mr Dietrich Scholz, an eccentric German man who was a familiar sight in Glenwood as he walked the roads pulling a trolley laden with groceries behind him.

Estate agents Charmane Galbraith and Russel Langley were well acquainted with Scholz who had purchased an upmarket property in Chelmsford Road for R2.5-million cash. According to Galbraith, Scholz was a strange, eccentric man who was well-known in the community.

“Mr Scholz was a loner. He could be seen every day walking the roads in Glenwood, wearing shorts, his urine bag exposed, pulling a strange trolley with a wooden box or groceries on the back. He was very distinct in the way he dressed and was a tall, fit man. He was always on foot and used to walk from Chelmsford Road down to Davenport Centre every day,” she said.

Galbraith said she had met Scholz when he approached her estate agency and asked her to help him find a flat in the area. She took him to view a number of flats but he was not interested in any of them. “He told me he wanted to live his last days in paradise,” she said. With that in mind, Galbraith took Scholz to view a property in Chelmsford Road and much to her surprise he immediately said he wanted it. “I didn’t think he could afford it, but he told me to contact his bank manager who confirmed that he had the funds to purchase the property and he paid cash,” she said.

“I even bought him a cellphone so I could keep in touch with him but he threw it away because, he said, the CIA were after him!”

“Fellow agent, Russel Langley, said when Scholz moved in he arrived at the house on foot, with his mattress on his head and had no furniture.

“I used to pop by the house on Sundays on my way to shows and we used to talk a lot. He was very intelligent when he had his lucid moments. The last time I saw him was in Spar just after Christmas. I haven’t seen him again. I went past his house in January and noticed there was rubbish thrown in his garden, it was overgrown and the lights had been turned off,” said Galbraith.

“The previous owner was a friend of mine who told me Mr Scholz’s neighbour had called him to say they hadn’t seen him in a while. On Sunday 13 April I drove past and noticed the gate had been pushed in and there was a police car outside. There was clothing and linen piled up on the driveway. The police told me they had been stopped by the neighbour who had seen the gate open. Apparently the neighbours had heard noises and went to investigate, only to find a strange man staying in the garage, who had the key to Mr Scholz’s house. The police were called and they chased him away and gave the key to the neighbours,” said Langley.

The two concerned estate agents went to the property the following week.

“The house was completely tossed. The copper pipes, door handles and door knobs had been stolen. The whole place was vandalised.” What was even more shocking was the discovery in the second lounge of a molar tooth and incisors lying on the floor. “There was also a stain on the carpet nearby and bare footprints leading from there to the toilet where there were signs of forced entry. The window was broken,” he said.

In the main bedroom the pair found dried faeces smeared across Mr Scholz’s mattress. His briefcase, money bag and passport were there, along with three unused urine bags. Burnt matches were found in one of the rooms while matchboxes were strewn all over the house.

Outside, the pool was green and in the garden they found a pair of children’s denim jeans scrunched up and women’s shoes. “This man lived alone, so something was definitely wrong,” said Langley.

The search for Mr Scholz

Worried about his whereabouts, Galbraith contacted Scholz’s bank manager who said there had been no movement on his account since January. They called hospitals, asylums and the mortuary, but Scholz was nowhere to be found. The man had literally vanished. When she approached the police, Galbraith was told she couldn’t open a missing person’s docket as she was not related to Mr Scholz.

“A private investigator was hired but he told us he didn’t find anything at the house, and only reported that the vandalism had escalated. All the police have done is put tape up over his gate. I called the German Consulate and the matter is being investigated. Mr Scholz/s brother in Germany has also been contacted but confirmed that his brother had not returned to Germany,” she said.

“We just want to know if anyone has seen him, and if they can let us know if they saw him getting in a car to go somewhere. We feel it is our duty to do something. We used to see him often but he has just gone. It is so strange. He used to draw R300 a week to live on, now there’s no movement on his account. We can’t just ignore this, we knew this man and cared about him. The police need to do something,” said Langley.

“It is so sad. If anyone knows anything, contact the police and report it, or myself on 031-2013680, so we can get to the bottom of this,” said Galbraith.

Vandals a concern

Berea Mail spoke to a neighbour in Chelmsford Road who agreed that it was a very strange situation. He was also concerned over the level of vandalism on the property. Heather Rorick of the Bulwer Community Safety Forum said something needed to be done before the house was totally vandalised. “Vagrants in the area know when there’s an empty house and they move in. I have seen this happen before. Something needs to be done,” she said.