Clockwise from left: Shantellè Oosthuizen and her fiancé Louis Harmse; Rudie Lubbe and Jacques Freitag after winning the gold medal in the men’s high jump final at the 9th IAAF World Athletics Championship in 2003 in Paris. Pictures: Facebook and Gallo Images/ Tertius Pickard
Two months after the brutal murder of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag in Pretoria, new twists and allegations have surfaced around the shocking case.
On Wednesday, police in Hercules obtained warrants of arrest for disgraced former lawyer Rudolph “Rudie” Lubbe and his long-time lover, Shantellè Oosthuizen, who vanished shortly after they were taken in for questioning in connection with the puzzling case.
In the wake of the couple’s dramatic disappearance, fresh details have emerged.
The Citizen spoke to two prominent people close to the murder case of the 42-year-old Freitag.
According to specialist private investigator Mike Bolhuis, whose Specialized Security Services (SSS) task team are working closely with the police, Freitag was well acquainted with Lubbe and Oosthuizen.
“We’ve traced their relationship going back several years,” said the PI with the signature brush cut.
Investigating officer Captain Martin Smith confirmed this to The Citizen, saying that Lubbe, 53, and Oosthuizen, 42, are wanted for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
He added that the manhunt for the Pretoria couple has extended countrywide and that border authorities have also been alerted.
“Initially we questioned Lubbe’s son, Lenus, because we thought they might be hiding out in Warmbad [now Bela-Bela].
“There is a strong possibility that they will try and skip the country although it appears that Lubbe’s passport has expired.”
Smith said that the police are also aware of some business dealings of Lubbe which are “not above board”.
“Throughout the years, he has also been in the spotlight for unethical conduct.”
In 2006, Lubbe was struck off the roll of attorneys after complaints from the Law Society of the Northern provinces that he had been unprofessional and had stolen money from his trust account.
He also made headlines back in August 2004 after being arrested for allegedly threatening to kill his then wife, Magdaline.
This is not the first time lawyers in South Africa have gone on the run because of shady dealings.
In 2010, Dirk Prinsloo from “Advocate Barbie” fame skipped the country to end up behind bars in Belarus after robbing a bank in the Eastern European country.
Bolhuis told The Citizen that cyber tracking is one of the methods they are using to try and find the couple.
“We’ll be able to track their whereabouts if they use their bank cards for withdrawals or to pay for anything.”
The seasoned detective who has been involved in high-profile cases, including that of the Czech former organised crime boss Radovan Krejčíř, said his investigators have handed over the information that they’ve gathered so far to the police.
“However, as the net is tightening around them, there is the possibility that they could have changed their appearance to evade detection by the public.
“I wouldn’t put it past Lubbe and Oosthuizen to rely on the art of disguise to conceal their true identities,” Bolhuis said.
The specialist investigator urged members of the public to immediately get in touch with the police if they spot Lubbe and Oosthuizen.
Smith also warned the public not to approach the couple.
“Lubbe has several firearm licences. Although he has reported these as stolen, he could still be armed with another firearm that he obtained.”
“It would however be very stupid of him to try and shoot his way out of a situation,” Smith said.
“Their best option is to hand themselves over to the police. They cannot run forever. We’ll find them…it’s just a question of when.”
Freitag was last seen alive when he left a guesthouse in Booysens, Pretoria West, on foot on 18 June.
He had been dropped there the previous day by Lubbe who fetched him from the Bronkhorstspruit home of his mother, Hendrina Pieters, at 1am in the morning to allegedly pay him for “a job”.
Freitag’s decomposing body was found on 1 July with three gunshot wounds and a broken arm in a field near the Zandfontein Cemetery, which is situated about 4km from the guesthouse.
The 2.04m-tall former top athlete was also stabbed several times.
His sister, Chrissie Lewis, told Sunday Times that Freitag’s face was unrecognisable and that her boyfriend, Theo Botha, could only identify him through a tattoo.
The “job” for which Lubbe is said to have owed the former star athlete money, appears to have been a botched “hit” on Oosthuizen’s fiancé, the 31-year-old Louis Harmse.
Oosthuizen and Lubbe dated for 16 years before she met Harmse in March 2023 at De La Rey’s, Lenus’ pub and grill in Bela-Bela.
According to its Facebook page, De La Rey’s is now “permanently closed”.
Despite the two lovebirds getting engaged after a whirlwind romance, Oosthuizen kept contact with Lubbe.
So much so that Harmse told Rapport that she spent a lot of time with Lubbe.
“Once, she stayed with Lubbe for three weeks. When I decided to go and fetch her in Pretoria, she told me that they had a lot of loose ends to tie up, such as furniture which needed to be sold.”
Freitag was a friend of both Harmse and Lubbe.
Harmse told the publication that on the morning of 13 June, Oosthuizen informed him that Lubbe organised a job on a farm for him and that she would be joining him.
She told him that the two of them would stay over in the apartment of Lubbe’s rental home in Montana Park on 13 June before the former attorney would take them to the farm the next morning.
Harmse packed his bags and on arrival at the apartment, Oosthuizen allegedly told him that she and Lubbe were going to score drugs while he settles in.
He now believes that the promised job was just part of an elaborate lie by Oosthuizen to get him there.
While they were away, Harmse was brutally attacked by Freitag with a brick.
He received 240 stitches for the extensive head injuries he suffered. The back of his skull has been smashed to the extent that he needs to have a fibre-glass plate fitted. His brain has also moved a millimetre forward.
Smith confirmed that Harmse has laid charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder against Oosthuizen and Lubbe.
In a surprise twist, Freitag was reportedly also on the run before he mysteriously vanished on 18 June.
An anonymous source shared with Rapport that Freitag was initially under the impression that he killed Harmse.
The distraught ex-high jumper reportedly arrived on his doorstep, convinced that the police were looking for him and that he would be thrown in jail.
He further claimed that a “terrified” Freitag requested that he’d be given poison rather than face imprisonment.
According to the source, Freitag told him that Lubbe, with whom he allegedly did drugs together on a regular basis, hired him to murder Harmse.
Following the attack on Harmse, Freitag reportedly fled in a minibus taxi to his mother’s home in Bronkhorstspruit.
Lubbe apparently instructed Freitag to get rid of his cellphone which the former athlete threw out of the taxi en route to Bronkhorstspruit from Pretoria.
The attack on Harmse took place five days before the former golden boy of South African athletics was last seen alive leaving the guesthouse.
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