POLOKWANE – Maela’s bail application was postponed to Friday 3 March to allow the state to call another witness to the stand.
On Tuesday, the Polokwane Magistrate heard testimony by the police during the bail application hearing of suspect in the case, Frans Maela (28).
In his testimony, investigating officer Captain Lawrence Mapetsha, explained how Wiers was continually stabbed with a knife after the scissors broke. She was stabbed 21 times and her eyes were removed.
Her son, Rolf (16), made the gruesome discovery of his mother’s bloodied and naked body in his younger sister’s room when he returned home from school. Her husband, Rolf, attended the hearing. “I want to know how this man gained entry to our property. Our gardener was not at work on the day but I called him the following day and asked him to come over,” he said.
Mapetsha testified that Maela, a gardener employed by the Wiers’ neighbours, was taken into custody on the day of the murder. The police found a cellphone and tablet belonging to the Wiers in Maela’s possession. A footprint that matches that of Maela was also discovered in the Wiers’ garden.
Maela admitted to being in the house when the murder took place but claims the Wiers’ gardener committed the crime. He says the gardener complained about not being paid enough.
The results of the DNA tests that will show whether Wiers was raped is not available yet.
Magistrate Janine Ungerer adjourned the hearing several times due to what she referred to as Mapetsha’s vague testimony. This due to the fact that he could not name the officer who recorded Maela’s statement, among other inconsistencies.
Ungerer ordered that the officer who recorded Maela’s statement must testify in the hearing when it resumes tomorrow (Friday).
Read more: Eduan Park murder described as ‘gruesome’
Wiers was murdered on 6 February in her home in Eduan Park where her bloodied body was discovered by her son Rolf on returning home from school. She was lying in one of the rooms naked with multiple stab wounds to the neck and under the chin. Both of her eyes had been removed with a sharp object.
The case has brought the community together in collectively wanting justice for her murder. See below a video from outside the court during Maela’s last appearance.
