Mooinooi murder ‘mastermind’ reportedly braindead
Koos Strydom has reportedly been in hospital since Monday, with unconfirmed reports indicating he died on Friday.
Koos Strydom. Photo: Daleen van Manen/ Kormorant
Although the department of correctional services has not yet confirmed it, messages about the death of Koos Strydom have appeared on Rustenburg Facebook groups.
Strydom, the alleged ‘mastermind’ behind the brutal rape and murder of same-sex couple Joey van Niekerk and Anisha van Niekerk, had been in the Kalafong Hospital since Monday after he was found unconscious in his cell in the Kgosi Mampuru II prison, Kormorant reports.
He was transported to the Kalafong Hospital, where he was attached to a ventilator.
Koos Strydom in hospital.
Rumours that he attempted to take his own life with either sleeping pills or poison have not been confirmed by the department, but it did say in a statement that “allegations of poisoning” were being investigated.
Strydom, his wife Mercia (23), Alex Modau (36), James Sithole (26) and Jack Sithole (19), stand accused of the murders of Joey and Anisha van Niekerk of Mooinooi in December 2017. The two women were raped, tortured and then hanged. Their bodies were burnt.
Koos is also accused of the murder of Rustenburg resident Amanda Mey in 2014.
Additional charges were brought against Strydom while he was in prison, after it came to light that he had given orders for witnesses to be killed.
In a message on Facebook, a ‘friend’ of Strydom requests people not to make nasty comments as his children were suffering.
“They are innocent children that will remember their father as the good father he was before he made mistakes,” the message reads.
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