EVANDER – A charge of murder is not yet off the table for the two people implicated in the murder of Evander butcher, Mr Mervin van Heerden.
Ms Karin van Heerden and Mr Darello Soetmelk heard in the Evander Magistrate’s Court on Friday, 12 April, that they will now appear in the Evander Regional Court on 22 July.
Ms Van Heerden is the business partner and ex-wife of Mr Van Heerden who was murdered at the back of the Karmer Butchery on 2 August.
Although the police discovered the murder scene that night, the body was only found three days later when Mr Soetmelk, an employee at the butchery, took the police to the site where the body was dumped.
Mr Van Heerden’s body was stuffed down a steal pipe in a remote area between Secunda and Evander and set alight.
A special police task team arrested the pair on 4 August and they appeared in court for the first time on a charge of murder on 6 August.
The magistrate at the time released Ms Van Heerden and Mr Soetmelk on a warning respectively for accessory after the fact as the state wants to claim that Ms Van Heerden had known about the murder, and Mr Soetmelk concealed the crime by claiming he had merely dumped the body.
The case was referred to the Director of Public Prosecution last month for a decision whether the case against the Ms Van Heerden and Mr Soetmelk holds enough weight to proceed to trial.
The outcome was in favour of the state and the prosecution of Ms Van Heerden and Mr Soetmelk on a charge of murder will continue.
The duo is still out on a warning to appear in court.
Also read:
https://www.citizen.co.za/ridge-times/121078/police-nab-two-for-murder-in-the-butchery/
