Lover’s exposé reveals ‘killer’

A statement in which a Pretoria woman admits to helping three men wrap the body of her former boyfriend in plastic and stuff it head-first down a manhole has been handed in as evidence in her trial.

The statement by Estelle Reddy, 36, was handed in by consent between the state and the defence.

Reddy, Gerhardus Papenfus, 42, Kevin Johnson, 31, and Ruvan Furst, 42, denied guilt to a range of charges, including murdering former police brigadier and businessperson Danie Dreyer, 62, at his house in Villieria in March 2016, robbing him and setting his house alight.

Reddy said in her statement she was living with Dreyer and working in his tombstone business when she met Papenfus, who told her he urgently needed money.

She agreed to give him the money that Dreyer owed her in commissions, but Dreyer refused.

Papenfus started talking about going back to gangsterism, selling drugs and robbing and murdering people. He also talked about robbing Dreyer.

Reddy was in Laudium for a wedding when Papenfus phoned and asked for Dreyer’s pin code.

He later came to pick her up, accompanied by Johnson and Furst. He told her Dreyer was dead, but it was accidental.

He thought Dreyer had a heart attack while they were wrestling.

He had overpowered Dreyer. Reddy said she was afraid of Papenfus and helped him and the others to clean up the blood in Dreyer’s house and wrap his body in plastic.

She had bought caustic soda and gloves for Papenfus and helped to transport the body to his house in Capital Park where they forced it down a manhole. They returned to Dreyer’s house, where Papenfus set a room alight.

They took Dreyer’s electrical appliances and Papenfus took his pistol. Reddy said she went to the police when a homeless man overheard her telling her mother and convinced her to do so.

– isledl@citizen.co.za

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