‘Dangerous criminal’: Seesig killer who wants to pen book on serial killers, a ‘psychopath’ – expert

Psychiatrist Stacey Lintnaar testified during an inquiry at the Western Cape High Court on Monday that if Seesig killer, Kyle Ruiters, is not declared a dangerous criminal, a long-term or life prison sentence is advised.

The 28-year-old Ruiters pleaded guilty to killing his Bellville neighbour Lynette Volschenk and dismembering her body in the Western Cape High Court on 9 May this year.

Seesig killer Kyle Ruiters convicted of premeditated murder

On 21 August 2019, Ruiters stabbed to death the 32-year-old Volschenk, who lived upstairs from him at Seesig Flats, in Loevenstein, Bellville. He cut her body up and dumped the parts in bushes around Bellville.

He was convicted on charges of premeditated murder, violating a corpse, and attempting to defeat the administration of justice.

‘Psychopathic’ Ruiters feels no remorse

The court granted the State’s application for Ruiters to be held at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital for a period of mental observation before sentencing.

According to Lintnaar, the convicted killer met nearly all of the criteria for the anti-social personality disorder associated with psychopaths.

He had little regard for the rights of others, and, alarmingly, during the assessment he admitted to stalking another woman when she refused to give him his phone number. 

She found him remorseless with no sign of guilt over what he had done.  

‘High likelihood of re-offending’ and fascination with serial killers

Lintnaar also raised his stated fascination with serial killers, such as Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer, and told the court of his plan to write a book on serial killers while in prison. 

“Right now, I would say, the likelihood of re-offending is very high,” the psychiatrist said. 

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Court urged to declare De Ruiters a ‘dangerous criminal’

Prosecutor Deputy Director Adv  Louise Friester argued that Ruiters represents a danger to the physical or mental well-being of other persons and that the community must be protected against him by imposing an appropriate sentence.

“Once he is declared a dangerous criminal, he will spend an indefinite period in prison with his condition assessed after a period to determine his state of mind and whether he is still a danger to society.”

Rarely invoked

Declaring an individual a dangerous criminal is rarely invoked, but Ruiters showed no remorse for his actions, which was echoed in the results of his psychiatric assessments.

As the presiding Judge Robert Henney pointed out: “In this case, he can’t be released on parole ever. It’s an indeterminate sentence unless he is brought before this court [for a review].”

Ruiters recounts gruesome details of murder, body parts and bloodied walls

In his plea statement earlier this year, Ruiters recounted the chilling details of his heinous crime.

According to  National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila, he confessed to being a drug addict who racked up a debt of R30 000 with his dealer.

Ruiters then hatched a plan to kill and rob someone of their valuable items which he could then sell to settle his debt.

• On the afternoon of 21 August 2019, Ruiters watched Volschenk walk to her flat above his own, waited for her as she opened her flat, and followed her inside.
• He grabbed a knife that was on the counter and stabbed her several times in the neck and body.
• She resisted the attack, and sustained defensive wounds on her hands and upper forearms as a result.
• When she stopped moving, he realised that she was dead.

Hand-held saw used to cut body up; severed head in plastic bag

• Ruiters used a hand-held saw he found in the flat to dismember her body in order to dispose of it.
• He cut up Volschenk’s body into nine parts before disposing of some of it in the bushes along Jip de Jager Drive, in Bellville.
• He wrapped her severed head in a plastic bag and dumped it in the bushes next to Bates Drive about 400m from the apartment block.  
• When Volschenk failed to show up the next day at the engineering company where she worked, some of her colleagues decided to check up on her.
• On arrival at the flat, they found Ruiters cleaning the blood-smeared passage wall near her front door.

Grim find in cooler box and counterfeit notes

• He was arrested in her flat and police later discovered parts of her body in the flat he shared with his aunt on the ninth floor of the apartment building.
• Netwerk24 reported they found some of her personal belongings which included a cupcake pan, a green scale, some keys from her flat, two medicine bottles, a cooler box, a pink towel and hooded top.
• It is believed that Ruiters used the cooler box to carry some of Volschenk’s body parts to his flat where the police also discovered counterfeit R100 notes with only one side printed.

The case has been postponed to Wednesday, 15 November for the final argument.