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By Nicole Engelbrecht 23 June 2019
On the 12th of March 1994, two young boys,10-year-old Elroy Van Rooi and his cousin Ryno, left their home in Strand,Western Cape, to help push grocery trolleys at a local shopping centre in thehopes of earning a few Rand in tips to spend on treats and arcade games. Theboys worked for a while and then Ryno got hungry and they went to a nearby caféto place an order for hot chips. While they waited for their food they lookedat one of the arcade game machines. The boys were approached by a man who offeredthem money to play a few games. They eagerly agreed and invited the man to jointhem. After enjoying their sponsored games, the boys collected their food orderand left the café to sit on a nearby kerb and eat. The man from the caféapproached them again and asked if they could help him to carry some boxes tothe nearby train station. He offered them R 10 each for their effort. In 1994to these two young boys, R 10 would haveseemed like a fortune and they agreed to assist. Half-way to the train station,however, Ryno became suspicious of the man as he’d figured out the boxes theywere carrying were empty. He told Elroy they should leave. Both boys had heardstories about a man that was killing young boys. That wasn’t happening inStrand, though, Elroy reasoned so while his cousin abandoned the mission andheaded back to their home, Elroy continued on with the stranger. He didn’treturn home for dinner that night. Elroy’s body was found a week later inKleinvlei, Eerste Rivier, 22 kilometres from Strand. The discovery of his bodywould be the key to ending a series of murders which had plagued the nearbycommunity of Mitchell’s Plain and surrounding communities for 8 years. Elroyvan Rooi was victim number 23 of the serial killer that had become known as TheStation Strangler.
South Africa in 1994 was a brewing pot of rebirth andstruggle. Apartheid had fallen and the country was about to celebrate byholding its first democratic elections in which all South Africans, regardlessof race or creed would be able to cast their vote. For 23 families, though,this new freedom meant very little because their young sons were dead, andtheir killer was still haunting the streets of Mitchell’s Plain.
Mitchell’s Plain is 32 kilometres from Cape Town and one of South Africa’s largest suburbs. It was established in the 1970s by the apartheid government to provide housing for people displaced by the Group Areas Act which was an attempt to segregate people into specific areas by race. By the late 80s and early 90s Mitchell’s Plain had started to develop areas of urban ghetto due to a lack of attention and resources from government and the diverse groups of people living in those areas were blighted by severe poverty and soon the scourge of the drug epidemic. Despite the growing criminal element, children were still believed to be safe in Mitchell’s Plain and they would regularly walk to the beach, shopping centres and ride the train system on their own. This may seem strange to us now, living in the times we do, where, most children do not even walk home from school alone, but in the mid-80s to early 90s it was completely normal. That was until local boys started disappearing.
The horror begins
The first recorded victim of the serial killer who wouldbecome known as The Station Strangler was in 1986. Jonathan Claasen was 14years old. His body was found on the 3rd of October 1986 in thefields surrounding Modderdam Railway Station. He had been sodomised, his handstied behind his back and his face was pushed into the sand. The cause of deathwas strangulation with a piece of his own clothing. This would become known as themodus operandi of The Station Strangler. Another 8 victims would be foundbefore the 90s rolled in. Yussuf Hoffmann was 10 years old and found murderedon the 7th January 1987 in Rocklands. The body of Mario Thomas, 13years old, was discovered 16 days later in Kuilsriver. The Station Strangler’sfourth victim remains unidentified to this day. The child was found in April1987 in the same location as the first victim. 12-year-old Freddie Cleaves wasfound two months later at Belhar Station. Samuel Ngaba, 15, was found at thesame station in August 1987. The 7th victim would also never begiven back his identity or an opportunity to be buried by his family, his bodywas discovered at Modderdam Railway Station on the 1st of October1987 almost a year to the day of the discovery of the first victim in exactlythe same location. Calvin Spiro was just 9 years old when his life was taken bythe Station Strangler. His body was recovered at Unibel Station near Belhar onthe 8th of February 1988. Denver Ghazu was the last of the victimsfor that decade. He was 11 years old when he was murdered, and his body wasfound near Sarepta Station.
The discovery of nine children murdered in horrific fashionwithin such a short period of time would send any community into a panic andMitchell’s Plain was no different. The cases had all been assigned to onedetective in the local police force but with no training in serial killings andno previous experience in such cases, the murders were not investigated as aseries. The detective had little to no resources with which to investigate and heretired from the police force without having made much headway at all.
In the meantime, South Africa welcomed the 90s with a senseof excited expectancy for some and unfounded trepidation for others. Freedomwas knocking on our door but there was one South African who was relishing hisfreedom in a different way. The Station Strangler had committed nine murdersand there was no sign of police on his trail. For two years he seemed tocontrol his compulsions but in October 1992, his blood lust took over onceagain.
After a two-year silence, the Station Strangler returned to Mitchell’s Plain to claim his next victim. The body of 11-year-old Jacobus Louw was discovered on the 27th of October 1992 in Mnandi Beach. The killer seemingly went silent for another year and then, in January 1994, all hell broke loose. The body of an unidentified child was found on the 13th of January 1994 in Weltevrede Dunes. The dunes were remote and desolate – sandy with enough shrubbery and vegetation that a body would not easily be seen. The Station Strangler had found his new killing fields. All of the rest of his victims would be dumped in these dunes and the area would forever be synonymous with the horror that had taken place there.
A month of terror
Elino Sprinkle was found deceased in the dunes on the 20thof January 1994. He was 11 years old. Donovan Swartz was found just 5 dayslater. Donovan had been the adopted son of Stella Jafta who would later reportthat she searched for her 10-year-old son for two days before she went to thepolice. When she did attempt to file a missing person report she was allegedlytold by police to carry on looking because there were many missing children andthey had no idea where they were. Stella would eventually find out the fate ofher son while watching news footage. A camera panned into an area where thebody of a child had been found. The body had thankfully been removed butclothing remained that had yet to be collected. Stella knew the moment she sawthe khaki pants and little red and white striped shirt that her son was dead.
It may seem strange to some that Stella would wait 48 hoursbefore reporting her son as missing. It must be understood, though, that at thistime in our country’s history, many groups of people did not trust the police.In fact, not long before, the police were not a service but rather a forcewhich was wielded against the people rather than in favour of their protection.It would take time to change that perception in the public’s mind.
On the same day as Donovan’s body was found, 12-year-oldJeremy Benjamin was found just 20 metres away. Jeremy had been gone for a weekbefore his family realised that he was not with one of the many family membersor friends he would stay with. It was not uncommon for children to move betweenhouses in different areas using the train system or hitchhiking to get around.Jeremy had moved between his mother’s house in Mitchell’s Plain, his father inStellenbosch, friends in Macassar and his grandmother in Eerste Rivier. With nohouse phones or cell phones to keep in contact, by the time his family realisedhe was not at any of these places, it was too late.
The discovery of so many bodies in such a short space oftime whipped the community into a frenzy. They demanded that the police startto take the murders of their children seriously. There were many more missingboys and the public started to conduct searches of the dunes themselves. Thelocal police force attempted to work with the community and on the weekendfollowing the discovery of Donovan and Jeremy’s bodies, an organised search wasconducted with police officers, members of the South African army and communitymembers. Eight more bodies were found. Jeremy Smith was 13 years old at thetime of his murder. Marcelino Cupido was just 9 years old. He had been stayingwith his siblings at his grandmother’s house for a short time when his fatherinstructed his mother to go and bring the children home. Marcelino had asked tostay a while longer as he enjoyed visiting with his grandmother. His motherreluctantly agreed and gave him 50 cents to spend at the shop. That was thelast time she saw her child. After the recovery of his body, she could onlybring herself to identify his clothing. Marcelino’s father had the task ofidentifying his body. Neville Samaai was 14 years old and his body was alsorecovered during the weekend search along with an unidentified child as well asan unidentified adult – the first and only known adult victim of the StationStrangler.
Fabian Willowmore and Owen Hofmeester were best friends. They were found lying side by side in the dunes, Fabian was 8 years old and had been strangled with Owen’s vest. Owen was 11 years old and had been strangled with Fabian’s underpants. There had been so many people living in Owen’s mother’s house that she had only realised he was missing when one plate of dinner remained untouched on the night of his disappearance. The last body to be found on that weekend search was that of an unidentified child whose remains were found fully clothed but with his underpants laying nearby. He had been strangled with a cord. It would later emerge that almost all the Station Strangler victims had been redressed in some way after having been sodomised. Forensic psychologists would state that this indicated the killer attempting to “undo” some of the terrible act he had committed.
The Station Strangler Squad
Following the horrific discoveries of the weekend search, a 14-man special task team was established in February 1994, called the Station Strangler Squad. The task team was headed up by Lieutenant Johan Kotze. In stark contrast to the initial investigation in the 80s, this task team was given every resource available. The squad had their own incident room at Mitchells Plain police station and an additional three caravans on the premises for extra room. They were issued with computers and data capturing assistants and a team of forensic psychologists including the only forensic psychologist, at that time, trained to draw up a profile of the killer. Micki Pistorius was flown in from Pretoria for sessions with the Station Strangler Squad. Pistorius faced challenges on the case including being one of the first women to work with the predominantly male police force on such a case. She also struggled to get many of the officers to buy into the work she was doing which seemed magical and mystical to them at the time. Pistorius details these struggles in several books she has written which cover this case as well as the many other serial killer cases she has worked on. I highly recommend these books for a deeper dive into the psyche of a serial killer and I will reference them on the website.
The Station Strangler Squad was immediately inundated withthousands of tips from the community. Most were well-meaning citizens who trulybelieved that certain people they knew could be the Station Strangler whilesome were simply using the tip line to create problems for people they didn’tlike. Every tip had to be investigated though and the squad would interview andinterrogate 2000 suspects in three months. The case was also being used bypoliticians to campaign for the upcoming elections and the press was houndingthe squad continuously. With 300 incoming calls a day to the tip line themembers of the squad barely slept for three months. They even interviewed childmolesters to gain an understanding of their modus operandi in the hopes of gaugingwhat type of person they were dealing with. Despite the huge effort now beingput in by the police, it was not enough for the public. The community wanted anarrest and they weren’t prepared to wait. A police station in nearby Steenbergwas almost burnt to the ground in protests. If the community suspected that thekiller was in a specific house they would demolish it until they got to theperson they wanted. The police often had to rescue individuals from therooftops of houses as they clambered to get away from a bloodthirsty crowd. Schoolsheld awareness sessions around safety and even changed their schedules so thatyounger children could walk home with older children.
South African Strangler Trees
I have a picture in my mind of this scene, a communitylosing their minds, setting fires, becoming vigilantes, consumed by the horrorthat was unfolding all around them, terrified and desperate and in amongst thischaos, a dark figure moves through the crowd. He is silent and observant,watching the anarchy he has created and waiting for an opportunity to sidle upto his next victim.
The forensic psychology team on the squad requested theassistance of Robert Ressler, the renowned American profiler who is known forbeing the pioneer of criminal profiling. He agreed to come to South Africa toassist but the decision was taken not to bring him to the country until afterthe elections as the political turmoil and violence around it was too much of arisk to Ressler’s safety. In the meantime, Micki Pistorius developed her ownprofile which Ressler would later review and determine to be 98% similar towhat he would have written. Ultimately, Ressler’s presence would not berequired although he did eventually fly to South Africa for a press conferencewhere he discussed the excellent work carried out by the forensic psychologistson the case.
Pistorius’s profile stated that the Station Strangler wouldbe of the same racial group as the victims and she believed that he livedwithin the same community. He would be aged between 25 and 30 and Pistoriuswould later clarify that she had arrived at this age group because most serialkillers start killing in their early twenties and considering the first murdershad been in 1986, that would put him in that age bracket. He would be employedin a position of authority like a teacher, policeman, preacher or social worker.He would be single, homosexual and possibly still living with his family.Pistorius profiled the killer as an intelligent man who would, at the veryleast, be bilingual and dressed neatly. He would prefer the company of childrenover adults and would drive a vehicle which had been resprayed to change thecolour at least once. Pistorius believed that the killer would have beensexually molested by a family member at a young age.
In a move which was a first for South African law enforcement, Pistorius’s profile was released to the media. It was a risky move, but the squad felt they had little choice. They had to arrest the Station Strangler before he struck again.
Sadly, this would not be the case as young Elroy van Rooiwould be found murdered in March of that year. Elroy’s murder, though, wouldadd another piece to the puzzle as, for the first time in the series, aneyewitness came forward claiming to have seen the Station Strangler with VanRooi on the day of his death. She described a man with a dark complexion andafro-like hairstyle. The man had a scar on his cheek. An identikit wasdeveloped and released along with Pistorius’s profile.
On the 12th of April 1994, a nurse at a psychiatric facility picked up a newspaper and looked at the identikit on the front page, then she read the profile of the serial killer being hunted. She immediately contacted police stating that she believed one of the patients in the clinic she worked at was the Station Strangler.
The monster has a name
Norman Simons, later known as Afzal Sarfaraaz Norman Simonsafter his temporary conversion to the Muslim faith, was born on the 12thof January 1967 in Greenpoint, Cape Town. Simons was the product of aninter-racial relationship which in South Africa at the time was illegal. Hischildhood was tumultuous and as a toddler, he was sent to live with hisgrandparents in the Eastern Cape where he would be raised in their Xhosatraditions. He would be passed between relatives in the Eastern Cape,Johannesburg and Durban throughout his childhood before eventually returning toCape Town as a teenager to live with his mother, her new husband and his olderbrother. Simons fit the profile like a glove. He was an unmarried teacher andstill lived with his family. His friends stated that he was homosexual. Simonswas highly intelligent, spoke seven languages, listened to classical music anddressed impeccably. He volunteered at an organisation that helped ex-convictsrehabilitate into society. He claimed to have been sexually abused by his olderbrother when he was a teenager.
After the telephone call from the psychiatric nurse, Simonswas brought in for questioning. Instead of answering questions, Simons offeredto write his life story for the police. They gave him a pen and paper and heproceeded to start writing. When he was done it was late at night and as he wasnot officially under arrest yet, Kotze asked Simons if he would like to sleepin one of their caravans for the night. He agreed and was placed under armedwatch.
On the morning of 13th April 1994, Simons wasarrested in connection with all the murders except Elroy van Rooi’s as policeclaimed to still be building a case against him for that murder. Later thatday, though, the police stated that they did not feel they had enough evidenceto hold him on the Mitchells Plain murders and released him briefly, only toarrest him very soon after for Elroy’s murder. During his initial few days incustody, Simons confessed that he had been killing children since 1986. Hewould later retract this confession only to confess again and offer to showpolice where he had dumped all of the bodies. To ensure that there was nochance of a defence lawyer claiming that police had shown him where the sceneswere, an officer with no knowledge of the case was brought in to accompanySimons as he pointed out the scenes. The journey through Mitchell’s Plain wasundertaken in the very early hours of the morning to avoid the communityfinding out that they had a suspect out in the open. Simons took the police toseveral of the scenes and then told them that he wanted to show them a bodythey hadn’t found yet. He pointed out a scene in the dunes and police searchedthe entire area. Some articles of children’s clothing were found but no body.Police would later say that there are wild dogs that frequent the area and itis possible that they had scavenged the remains.
In Simons’ confession, he stated that he had committed his first murder in 1986, his final year of school. He claimed that the murders had been as a result of two factors. The first was that, as a young child in the Eastern Cape, he had a curse put on him by an old woman and the second and most predominant contributing factor was that he had been hearing the voice of his older brother who had sodomised him and this had driven him to kill. It was discovered that Simons’ brother, Boysie, was murdered. Reports conflict in whether this was in 1991 or 1993 but I tend to think it may have been the latter if we consider that Simons most vicious spree was in 1994 and his cooling off periods between murders became far shorter indicating he was possibly in a heightened state of emotion.
I find Simons’ description of his brother’s voice in his head,very interesting. It would be easy for us to immediately assume that Simons wassuffering from schizophrenia or a multiple personality disorder. This was notthe case, though. Simons was taken in for a full psychiatric evaluation afterhis arrest and while he was diagnosed with several personality disorders anddepression, he was ultimately not found to be mentally ill to the extent thatsuch could be used as a defence for his actions. Micki Pistorius describes thetype of killer that Simons was as a reversal of the active-passive roles whichhad been the focus of his childhood trauma. She explains that when Simons wasabused by his brother, he assumed a passive role to that of his brother’sactive aggressor role. In adulthood, he sought to continually recreate thereverse of that situation by choosing children who were similar in age andethnicity to him when his trauma occurred and inflicting the aggression on themso that he became the active participant and they were the passive participant.He repeated this pattern continually in the hopes that it would resolve itself.I don’t claim to be a psychologist, of course, but in my opinion when Simonssaid he heard his brother’s voice telling him to commit the crimes, perhaps hewas “hearing” the memory of the trauma associated with his brother’s voiceduring the assaults and because he was actively trying to reverse his abuse, hetook that on as his brother “telling” him to do these things. One of thereasons I say this is because Simons claims to have “heard” his brothers voiceeven before he died in 1993 so there is clearly no mysticism or possession typesituation here, it is merely Simons’ own thoughts which he allocates to hisbrother in his mind.
South Africa Strange Facts
Mike Stowe, the prosecutor who would take Simons to trialfor Elroy’s murder, claimed that he and members of the investigating team hadwitnessed Simons have a visceral reaction to the mention of his brother’s name.Stowe claimed that Simons had such a dramatic change in demeanour and mannerthat he appeared to have physically changed appearance. He also growled andspoke in a what is referred to as “tongues” during these episodes. Stoweclaimed that on one occasion when one of these transformations occurred he hadgone to call the investigating officer from his office so that he could alsowitness it. He claims that the officer could almost not recognise Simons.
Simons wrote in one of his confessions: I am nothing. I am dirty. I amfilthy and not worthy. I am sorry for letting you down. Don’t get caught in thesame thing. I really regret everything. It’s hard to be possessed by unknownforces. These forces cannot be explained by medication. I salute you with lovefor a better and understanding and peaceful South Africa.
Due to the advanced state of decomposition in which most ofthe Mitchells Plain victims were found, the DNA evidence was either broken downor not able to be processed with the technology available in 1994. Police hadnothing else to tie Simons to the original killings but believed they couldsecure a conviction for the last murder with the eye-witness testimony, his twoconfessions (although he had retracted them) and the fact that he had pointedout some of the scenes. Simons was placed in an identity parade and identifiedby the eyewitness albeit unconvincingly. She stated that he looked the mostlike the man she had seen with Elroy that day, but his hair had been different.In the identity parade, Simons’ hair was short, but the witness claimed that onthe day she had seen him his hair was worn in an afro-like style, the way shehad him depicted in the identikit. Police felt that this was sufficientevidence and charged Simons with Elroy’s murder.
As much as the community were relieved to finally have theman who had haunted their nightmares for 8 years in custody, they were equallyshocked to see who had been arrested. Simons had been well respected in thecommunity and loved by his pupils. A co-worker remembered an occasion when oneof their students had undergone open heart surgery and Simons had volunteeredto sit by the child’s bedside so that the mother could go home and rest for awhile. Other colleagues started putting the pieces together pretty quickly. Amale teacher at Alpine Primary School where Simons taught remembered that whenthe Station Strangler was at his worst, all male teachers in the school hadpatrolled the school grounds at lunchtime to ensure the children were safe.Simons had refused to take part. They had locked classrooms during school time.Simons refused to lock his class and would walk between classrooms, knocking ondoors and saying: “Open up, it’s the Strangler!”. The teachers had asked theirstandard 3 or grade 4 students to do a project on the Station Strangler toraise awareness. Simons had refused to let his class do the project.
Parents of the murdered children came forward with storiesof their children having been familiar with Simons. Donovan Swartz’s mother claimedthat even though her son had not attended the school that Simons taught at, sherealised after he was arrested that her son knew him. Donovan would playcricket with Simons after school and he would sometimes take Donovan and a fewother boys to the beach. Donovan had come home with two brand new cricket bats andcricket balls. When Stella asked where they had come from Donovan said MrSimons had given them to him.
Regenal Heslop’s son Jason was not officially counted among the murder victims but he went missing during the Strangler’s ’94 reign of terror and his body was never found. Regenal also stated that his son had spoken about a Mr Simons in the weeks before he went missing. In fact, his son had spoken so much about this teacher that when Jason went missing, Regenal went to Jason’s school to see if he could chat to this teacher in case he knew something about his whereabouts. When he arrived at the school he was told that no Mr Simons was employed there. After Simons’ arrest he put two and two together.
The Trial
The trial of Norman Simons began on the 27th ofFebruary 1995 and was presided over by Judge WA Van Deventer. The admissibilityof the eyewitness testimony and the scenes that Simons had allegedly pointedout were brought into question by Simons’ defence attorney, Koos Louw. Simonsdid not testify but sat in the dock taking notes or filling out crosswords,occasionally clicking his tongue when he disagreed with something a witnesssaid. The investigation was pulled through the wringer with almost every aspectbeing brought into question by the defence. The police were accused of findingthe first person they could to fit their profile so that they could get anarrest and appease the public.
Regenal Heslop, desperate to find out any shred ofinformation about his son’s disappearance, attended the court proceedings. Herecalls seeing Simons sitting in the dock and knowing that he possibly had the answersto the questions that were haunting him, he pushed his way right to the front,as close to Simons as he could get. He claims that at that moment Simons hadturned around and looked directly at him saying, “I’m sorry they never foundJason’s body.” Jason Heslop was reportedly the only boy who Simons haddescribed by name in his written confession, he had not admitted to killing himthough, nor would he reveal the child’s whereabouts.
On the 15th of June 1995, Norman Simons was foundguilty of the murder of Elroy van Rooi. He was sentenced to 25 years for hismurder and 10 years for kidnapping. He was remanded to Drakenstein CorrectionalFacility to serve his sentence.
Although the parents of the other victims had not receivedjustice for their children they were sated with the knowledge that their killerwas in jail.
After having retracted his second confession, though, NormanSimons had not stopped proclaiming his innocence of all the crimes of which hewas accused. He wrote a letter to Elroy’s grandmother stating that he did notkill her grandson. His defence lawyer Koos Louw was just as adamant and in 1998he brought Simons case to the court of appeals. The appeal ended with Simons’sentence being increased to life. Simons became a model prisoner in DrakensteinCorrectional Facility. He mentored new prisoners to acclimatise to their newsurroundings just as he had mentored ex-convicts in his life before hisconviction. Koos Louw, would not give up on his client, though, and announcedthat he was so convinced of Simons’ innocence that he would not cut his hairuntil Simons was released and cleared.
Life had returned to some sense of normality in Mitchell’s Plain. The parents of the murdered boys continued to miss the young men and could never plug the holes that had been left in their families. After Simons’ sentence was increased, they felt some sense of justice, though. He would have to fight for parole and if he refused to confess there was a good chance he would never see the light of day again. An uneasy calm settled over the Weltevrede dunes which had seen such horror. The monster was in a cage. Or was he?
The inquest
In 2005, an inquest was held into the original Mitchell’sPlain Station Strangler killings. It would start a snowball of revelationswhich would bring everything that South Africa thought they knew to be trueabout the case, into question.
Simons was not charged with the original Mitchell’s Plainkillings because there was insufficient evidence, but he had been broughtforward to the public as the Station Strangler, tried in the minds of thecommunity and found guilty. As the inquest continued, though, it began toemerge that there was not really a lack of evidence, it just didn’t matchSimons. DNA technology in 1994 was very limited but when the inquest was heldin 2005 it was possible to extract DNA from some of the old degenerated samplesand compare them to known samples including Simons. Semen that was found on theback of Jeremy Smith’s underpants was tested. It did not match Simons. Semenfound on Elroy van Rooi’s underpants also did not match Simons. The note foundin one of the victim’s pockets underwent handwriting analysis as did acrossword puzzle found beside another victim which was from a newspaper printedon the same day as the victim’s murder. Neither handwriting sample matchedvarious samples obtained from Simons throughout the years. The crossword puzzlewas also fingerprinted and clear prints were lifted, which also did not matchSimons. I will mention here that Simons was known to enjoy completing crosswordpuzzles from the same newspaper during his original trial.
Koos Louw presented an array of evidence at the inquestwhich he felt pointed to the innocence of his client. He claims that Simons’confessions were given after a week-long session of intense interrogation. Hesays that Simons became so distraught during this time that the officer incharge decided to send him for a psychiatric evaluation. In an extremelystrange move though, police officers are alleged to have continuedinterrogating Simons while he was under psychiatric evaluation. This is veryirregular and if it is the case, then any information extracted from Simonsduring this time could be brought into question. Koos Louw also presented analibi for Simons for the day of Elroy van Rooi’s murder. He was seen at alibrary in Claremont at 14:30 that day. It would have been impossible for himto get to Strand by 16:00 to be seen by the witness.
Simons’ conviction had mostly leveraged on the eyewitness testimony but Louw presented a bombshell to the inquest. A reward of R 250 000 which had been offered by a local supermarket chain was awarded to the eyewitness before Simons was convicted. Usually rewards of this nature will be on the condition that the suspect is successfully convicted but, in this case, it seems, the suspect was determined to be guilty before he had been tried. The eyewitness was further brought into doubt when it was revealed that she had pointed out that the hair of the man she had seen with Elroy that day was different to Simons. The man she had seen had a large afro-like haircut while Simons’ hair was short. This seemed a small inconsistency until a photograph of Simons was presented to the inquest. The photograph was taken on the morning of Elroy’s murder. Simons had gone to register as a police reservist to assist with the Station Strangler searches. As part of this registration, his photo was taken which showed him with short hair. Unless his hair grew within hours into an afro, there is very little chance that he was the same man the eyewitness had seen. The wide array of identikits that had been produced during the Station Strangler investigation was mind-boggling. I will post a snippet of a thesis I found online, below and on our Facebook page which shows all of the identikits together. When you see them all in one place next to a photo of Simons you can only wonder if it was the same person. Witness memories are often unreliable, though and I can imagine that once the witnesses heard what the man they had seen was accused of doing, the trauma may have clouded their memory to an extent.
Koos Louw had also discovered that someone else had seenElroy that day. The George family was familiar with Elroy from theneighbourhood and saw him on the train that afternoon. They stated that he wasalone with no strange man, that they could see, in sight. When asked where hewas going, Elroy had said he was going to see his aunt in Firgrove. An uncle ofhis had also allegedly been on the same train and interacted with Elroy as hewas also going to visit the same woman. None of these witnesses appeared atSimons’ trial. I will say that these witness accounts do seem odd to me and Iwonder whether the people in question don’t perhaps have their days mistaken astheir stories completely disagree with Elroy’s cousin’s story. Koos Louw wouldalso state that Simons’ initial confession that he had killed Elroy on thetrain platform, could not be true as it was peak hour and there would have beenhundreds of people on the platform at that time.
The inquest heard that at one of the crime scenes a witnesshad reported seeing a VW Jetta parked near the scene and no other vehicles. Thewitness was alleged to have heard screams coming from the bushes near thevehicle. Simons had never owned such a vehicle.
Two men came forward to the inquest to state that theybelieved they had been the Station Strangler’s first attempted victims. One ofthese men will play a greater role in the story later but, at the time, theiridentities were kept confidential. As young boys, in the 80s, the children hadbeen abducted and sodomised by a stranger in Mitchells Plain. The attack hadexactly the same MO as the Station Strangler murders, but these boys knewSimons at the time and said that he was not their attacker.
The officer that had been involved in the pointing out ofthe crime scenes by Simons had admitted to the inquest that there had been moreinconsistencies than correct instances in the scenes he had pointed out.
It was revealed that there had been a witness for the prosecutionwho they had decided not to call at the time. Kevin Pretorius was a friend ofNorman Simons. He had initially given a statement saying that he had seenDonovan Swartz with Simons on many occasions and that Simons had sometimes tiedDonovan’s hands behind his back to “teach him a lesson”. Pretorius also statedthat Simons had told him that he had raped little boys in the past. The reasonthat Pretorius’s statement was not used against Simons was because he changedthe story many times in the days before the trial and the prosecutor eventuallyfound him to be too unreliable to put on the stand. After he was turned away asa witness, Pretorius claimed that all of his statements had been made onintimidation from the police. He said that they had forced him to undress, physicallyintimidated him and sworn and belittled him until he gave them the story theywanted. Shortly after Kevin Pretorius made these claims he was shot deadoutside his home. His killer has never been identified.
It was further alleged during the inquest that, in 1995,while Simons was in custody, more children disappeared, and more bodies werefound. I haven’t found any concrete evidence to prove this, but the possibilityexists that it is true.
The inquest continued for 3 years. On the 9th ofDecember 2008, Regional Magistrate Marelize Rolle closed the inquest andpresented its findings. It was claimed that there was sufficient evidence toprove that Simons had killed at least 6 of the victims in addition to Elroy butdue to the lapse of time she declined to recommend further prosecution. Simonswas returned to prison to continue serving his sentence.
Of course, we do not have access to all of the informationpresented in that inquest but considering the major evidence presented thatcontradicted the findings, one would think that the evidence that contributedto the Magistrate’s decision would also be made available.
Koos Louw, the defence attorney of Simons and a strong proponent for his innocence, passed away in 2011 after a struggle with cancer.
Bombshells
In 2014, one of the men who had testified at the inquest asbeing the first surviving victim of the Station Strangler spoke to the press.He had hidden his story his entire life. Even his wife did not know that he hadbeen attacked by the Strangler. The man came forward because he had always beenuneasy about the findings of the inquest and wanted his story placed on publicrecord. He explained that he and a friend had been approached by a man whenthey lived in Mitchell’s Plain as children in the 1980s. The man had offeredthem R 10 each to help him carry banana boxes and they had agreed. The man haddirected them to a remote area, suddenly slowing his pace and dropping behindthem. It was then that he had swung a cord around both their necks and forcedthem to the ground. He had sodomised both boys and then attempted to stranglethem. He claims that the man had fallen asleep and he and his friend hadmanaged to escape. He went on to state that both he and his friend knew Norman Simonsat the time, and they were certain that he was not their attacker. The man thenrevealed that in 2014 he had been contacted by a police officer about his case.The police officer had told him that they had recently arrested a man inJohannesburg for sodomising and murdering young boys. The man had lived in theMitchell Plain area in the 1980s and 1990s. He was never questioned about theStation Strangler murders.
Shortly after this admission and as Simons would soon be upfor parole, the Station Strangler became a topic of conversation in the mediaagain and one morning in 2014, a radio station was discussing the case whenthey received an unexpected telephone call. Mike Stowe, the prosecutor who hadled the Elroy van Rooi murder charge against Norman Simons in 1994 had decidedto break his silence. Stowe told the radio station that he was now unsure as towhether they had convicted the right man. He admitted to having these doubtseven at the time of the trial. He brought up as reasons the fact that thewitness had described a totally different hairstyle on the man she had seen andthe fact that woman had been given the huge reward before Simons was evenconvicted. He also said that no one had testified to seeing Elroy on the trainthat day (by this I assume he is acknowledging the existence of statements bythe George family and Elroy’s uncle and the fact that they were not called totestify). Stowe acknowledged that Simons had been placed at a library inClaremont at 14:30 on the day of the murder and that it would have beenimpossible for him to get to Strand station by the time Elroy was taken. Stowesaid that if Simons had testified about his retracted confessions he believesthe trial would have had a very different outcome. Simons’ attorney had statedthat his client was in no state of mind to testify in his own defence. Stowe’sadmission sent shock waves through the country and family members of thevictims said that they could not believe that he was only coming forward now. Amember of the law fraternity would state that they felt Stowe’s failure to makehis doubts known at the time of the trial was tantamount to dereliction ofduty.
In 2015, Norman Simons applied for parole. His application was declined. There was a moment of panic when a newspaper had contacted Drakenstein Correctional Facility to get a comment on the upcoming parole hearing and they were told that the Correctional Services was not sure whether they still “had him”. A few days later they retracted the statement and confirmed that they had “found Simons” and he was indeed still in their facility. I honestly don’t know what to say about that. You “lost” an alleged serial killer?
The Real Strangler?
In 2016, a self-confessed and convicted paedophile, BrianShofer was found hanging in the police cells at Lentegeur Police Station.58-year-old Shofer had been arrested just days before for the sexual assault ofa 17-year-old boy who was living with him. Brian Shofer’s arrest had beensurrounded by much controversy. He had been released from his initial sentencefor molestation and sodomy in 2010 and while he was initially under the watchof a parole officer, he managed to surround himself with children again. Hestarted advertising online to tutor children and although at the time of hisarrest, he claimed that all the parents of the students he tutored knew verywell that he had a previous history of sex crimes against children, this wouldturn out to be untrue. It also emerged that he had managed to secure a job at aCape Town primary school shortly after leaving jail although he was only therefor a few months. Shofer claimed to be completely rehabilitated and denied themost recent charges against him. His suicide came after two of his landlordshad gone to the media with some disturbing claims. Between the two men, theyhad acted as his landlords at various premises for the six years that he hadbeen out of jail. Both men had been told by Shofer that his sentence had beenin regard to a relationship he had with a 16-year-old girl who had lied to himabout her age and that he had been charged with statutory rape over themisunderstanding. This was completely untrue and, in fact, Shofer had beenfound guilty in 1994 of multiple charges of rape and sodomy against severalboys under the age of 15. His landlords both separately made statements to themedia about having seen children living with Shofer over the years. The17-year-old boy that was most recently accusing Shofer of sexual assault hadapparently been living with him since he was 12 years old. Both landlords alsostated that they believed that Shofer was the real Station Strangler. He hadreportedly lived in Mitchell’s Plain during the same period the Strangler wasactive there. He was a teacher. He also lived in Strand. Shofer had claimed hispaedophilia stemmed from sexual abuse he endured as a child by his uncle. Hesaid that his father had been aware that his uncle was raping him but hadignored it. Besides the claims made by his landlords, Shofer was made awareshortly before his suicide that he was going to be charged with a rape case in Steenberg, a sexual assault case in Mitchell’s Plain, asexual assault case in Hanover Park, and 18 cases of sexual assault involvingstreet children in Strand, where he used to reside. Shofer served his initialsentence in the same prison as Norman Simons.
Since the Shofer allegations surfaced,unnamed criminal experts have come forward as saying that, at the time of theStation Strangler investigation, police had looked into the possibility ofthere either being two killers with exactly the same MO or that the StationStrangler had an accomplice. Shofer matches the profile almost exactly exceptfor his race. This may, however, not be a major obstacle as Shofer lived in thesame community as these boys for many years and despite being of a differentrace, there is a very good possibility that he became as much a part of thecommunity as anyone else.
Also, in 2016, the body of a 26-year-oldman, Adrian de Vos was found in the exact location of one of the StationStrangler victims. He had been shot and then his body had been staged in amanner which was extremely similar to the Strangler victims. It was notconfirmed as to whether he had also been sexually assaulted. At this time,there was a decent amount of talk about the Station Strangler again so it’slikely that this was a sick joke by Adrian’s killer.
The case of the Station Strangler is anabsolute rabbit hole. Just when you think you’re getting to the bottom of it,the tunnel of truth takes another turn and you end back where you started justa little more uncertain. There may not be physical evidence to prove thatNorman Simons was the Station Strangler but there are also far too manyconnections for me to ignore. His personal contact with so many of the boysthat were murdered or went missing could be considered to be an act of grooming.While it is not uncommon for people to make false confessions whether it’sunder duress or simply for their own, sometimes incomprehensible, reasons, itis rather rare for someone to confess and retract their confession twice. Itend to think that there had to be a shred of truth to each confession, whetherhe was solely responsible or not. Simons is clearly a damaged man. Hischildhood has left deep scars in his soul and I do not think that it iscoincidence or completely a matter of being framed that placed him in themiddle of the Station Strangler investigation.
As for the police, I think that theyfound themselves in a very difficult situation with pressure from every side andscenes of horror all around them. They did not want any more blood on theirhands just as much as the community wanted their sons to stopped being brutalised.I do think that the political turmoil around that time played a role in theurgency of the investigation. One cannot help but wonder how many lives couldhave been saved if the same resources had been applied to the situation whenthe killings first started.
While I do believe that Simons had somesort of involvement in the killings, I cannot personally ignore all the looseends. There are too many other predators who were in the area at the time thatcould easily fit the bill. I don’t whether the DNA samples from the victimswere all used up in the 2005 inquest but if they weren’t it may be worth doinga comparison against Shofer and the Johannesburg killer even if it’s just togive the remaining family members some peace of mind. Many of the parents ofthe victims and witnesses have passed away but a tragedy like this leavesripples in a family and community that will continue sucking survivors underthe surface until it’s resolved.
I do think that law enforcement and ourjustice system have some answering to do. No matter what the crime is, wecannot have our justice system convicting people without sufficient evidenceand as much as I don’t think Simons is completely innocent, I also don’t seethat a court should have found him guilty solely on the evidence presented. Itwas flimsy at best and laughable at worst. But then I need to consider the flipside of that coin. If Simons was the killer of 22 children and 1 adult, and hehappened to just get really lucky and have no evidence against him, he couldhave been released back into the world to kill again.
I don’t think that Simons will ever beparoled and if he is, he will have a very difficult life outside. For allintents and purposes, his life ended on the 13th April 1994 when hewas branded the Station Strangler because even if he, by some miracle has hisinnocence proven, in the minds of many he will always be a monster.
For me, the real tragedy here is not thatone man may have unfairly lost his freedom, while that of course, would betragic enough, for me the real tragedy is that 22 children lost their lives inthe most horrific way. Picture an entire class of young boys, all sittingbehind their desks in freshly starched white school shirts and grey standard-issueschool pants, their smiles are broad and innocent, some may be missing teeth asthey bridge the gap between milk and adult teeth, they’re chattering animatedlyabout soccer and cricket and games they play at home and then suddenly a darkcloud moves in over all of them, they are blanketed and silenced, their chatterand giggles a distant memory. An echo in time. These boys were loved deeply andhad futures and all of that was taken away from them and their memories sulliedby continuing injustices. Let’s for a moment not wonder about who took theirlives but rather remember that they lived – Jonathan, Yusuf, Mario, Freddie,Samuel, Calvin, Denver, Jacobus, Elino, Donovan, Jeremy B, Jeremy S, Marcelino,Neville, Fabian, Owen, Elroy and the five boys whose names remain unknown. Youare remembered.
| Born | Sipho Mandla Agmatir Thwala 1968 |
|---|---|
| Other names | 'The Phoenix Strangler' |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment (506 years) |
| Details | |
| Victims | 16+ |
Span of crimes | 1996–1997 |
| Country | South Africa |
| 14 August 1997 | |
Sipho Mandla Agmatir Thwala (born 1968) is a South Africanrapist and serial killer who was convicted in 1999 for the murders of 16 women and 10 rapes. He was sentenced to 506 years in prison.[1] Thwala was known by the moniker 'The Phoenix Strangler'.[1]
Thwala, born and raised in KwaMashu, began his year-long rape and murder spree in 1996 in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.[2] His modus operandi was to lure local women into accompanying him through the sugarcane fields of Mount Edgecombe near the town of Phoenix with the promise of employment as domestic servants in nearby hotels.[1] Once they were deep within the cane fields, Thwala would attack the women, bind them with their own undergarments and then rape, strangle and bludgeon them to death. He relied on physical evidence of his attacks being destroyed through the common farming practice of burning cane fields, which set the police investigation back until a body was eventually discovered that had not yet been burned.
Thwala was arrested in 1997 after South African police matched DNA found on the victims to DNA taken from Thwala in 1994 when he was arrested and acquitted of a rape.[1] On 31 March 1999, the High Court in Durban found Thwala guilty of 16 murders and 10 rapes and sentenced him to 506 years in prison.[2]
Thwala is currently being held at C Max Penitentiary in Pretoria, South Africa.
References[edit]
- ^ abcdDiscovery Channel: Crimes and Forensics. Crimes That Shook The World.Archived 2009-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ abSerial Killer Hit List
Further reading[edit]
- Newton, Michael (2000). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. New York: Checkmark Books. ISBN0-8160-3979-8.