CHARMAINE CONRADIE - Aged 8 years - Calitzdorp (South Africa)

hippy
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:55 pm

SABC News

13/2/2008

Suspect arrested in missing child case

http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,2172,164133,00.html[b]

hope4maddy
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:17 am

Why did her mother wait so long to report it? Friday she went missing, but it was reported Monday. Am I missing something here?

pam supportfromireland
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:44 pm

I don't know Hope. I just hope she is found.

hope4maddy
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:13 pm

pam supportfromireland wrote:I don't know Hope. I just hope she is found.

Me too Pam. So heartbreaking all these missing children.

hippy
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:13 pm

iAfrica.com

15/2/2008

Missing Calitzdorp girl found dead

http://iafrica.com/news/sa/908400.htm

smokie
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:15 pm

hippy wrote:iAfrica.com 15/2/2008


Missing Calitzdorp girl found dead

http://iafrica.com/news/sa/908400.htm

WHY, WHY??

So sad may this little angel rest in peace.

pam supportfromireland
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:35 pm

Bless this little sweet child. RIP.

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:26 am --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IOL

February 15 2008 at 03:09PM

Police conduct forensic tests on body

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20080215140211530C518949

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:27 am

SABC News

February 15, 2008, 17:45

Charmaine Conradie's suspected killer in court

http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,2172,164242,00.html

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:28 am

News 24

15/02/2008 20:04 - (SA)

Calitzdorp urged to stay calm

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2271692,00.html

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:30 am

IOL

February 16 2008 at 09:53AM

Shameless brutality

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20080216083007764C334448
[b]

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:31 am

SABC News

February 25, 2008, 12:30

Two held for murder of Little Karoo girl

http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,2172,164792,00.html

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:32 am

The Herald

26th February 2008

Little girl‘s suspected killers to apply for bail, legal aid

http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n07_27022008.htm

merlynsam
IOL

March 03 2008 at 04:12PM

Two men appear for murder of girl



Two men accused of the murder and rape of eight-year-old Charmaine Conradie briefly appeared in the Calitzdorp magistrate's court in the little Karoo on Monday, the SABC reported.

The broadcaster said Isaac van Rooyen, 34, and Jafta Andries, 38 had their case postponed to March 14 and were remanded in custody

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20080303153244622C618719

Legalbrief Today

Tue 08 April 2008

Calitzdorp man on murder charge remanded in custody

Petrus Pietersen (38), of Calitzdorp, accused of murdering his girlfriend Johanna Moses, was remanded until 14 April in the Calitzdorp Magistrates’ Court, says a report in The Herald.

Moses’ body was found on 23 March – two days after she had been reported missing – in a field between St Helena, where she was last seen by friends, and her Bergsig home. Moses – apparently killed by a blow to the head – was the half-sister of Charmaine Conradie (aged 8 ), who was raped and murdered two months ago.

http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20080408103222266

Legalbrief Today

Wed 21 May 2008

Eight-year-old's alleged killers drop bail applications

The two men accused of murdering eight-year-old Charmaine Conradie and hiding her body in bushes near the Calitzdorp rubbish dump in February have given up their plans to apply for bail, says a report in The Herald.

Charmaine's uncle, Jaftha Andries (38) and Isak van Rooyen (35) appeared in the Calitzdorp Magistrates' Court where they withdrew their bail applications. Their case was postponed to 4 June. Both accused have requested legal aid.

http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20080521132117964

The Herald

7th October 2008

Homeless man held for child‘s murder released

A HOMELESS man detained for the murder of eight-year-old Charmaine Conradie in Calitzdorp earlier this year has been released due to lack of evidence.

Isak van Rooyen, 34, said yesterday he was relieved.

“I was sent to jail unnecessarily for almost seven months. From the start I said I was innocent, but I was dragged into the case because I live near the rubbish dump where the child was found.”

Police are still holding Charmaine‘s uncle, Andries Jafta, who faces charges of kidnapping, rape and murder.

Van Rooyen said Jafta, who was arrested first, falsely accused him of the murder.

“He did not mean to do me harm, but I lost a lot while I was in jail.”

Conradie‘s partially decomposed body was found at the foot of the Rooiberg Mountains on February 15. She left her home in the suburb of Bergsig on February 8 to play with a friend at the rubbish dump and was never seen again.
Previous

http://www.theherald.co.za/archives/searchresults.aspx?domains=www.theherald.co.za&q=Charmaine%20Conradie&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Google+Search&sitesearch=www.theherald.co.za&client=pub-1301211932297017&forid=1&channel=3926045402&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en#913

The Herald

13th May 2009

Accused acted suspiciously, court told during trial of uncle for rape and murder of niece, 8

Jaftha Andries had a plastic bag and a knife on him when he was seen at the Calitzdorp rubbish dump the morning before he was arrested for the abduction, rape and murder of his eight-year-old niece, Charmaine Conradie, Constable Elroy Quantini told the Oudtshoorn Circuit Court this morning (May 13).

Andries told police he planned to put the bag over his head if it rained.
Conradie went missing on February 8 last year and her badly decomposed body, with a plastic bag over her head, was found near the rubbish dump a week later.

Andries was arrested after acting suspiciously during the search for his niece.

http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=421962

The Herald

14th May 2009

Uncle denies killing girl at rubbish dump

KATRINA Conradie, the mother of murdered eight-year-old Charmaine Conradie, only reported her daughter‘s disappearance two days after she was last seen alive because she thought the child was visiting friends, the Oudtshoorn Circuit Court heard yesterday.
Conradie was the first of 48 state witnesses due to testify against a member of her family, Andries Jaftha, 42, who is accused of abducting, raping and murdering Charmaine on February 8 last year.

Her body was found near the Calitzdorp rubbish dump a week later.

Jaftha, in his plea explanation read by legal aid lawyer Wentzel Botha, told the court he was nowhere near the rubbish dump on the day that Charmaine disappeared.

He said he fetched his weekly wages at a bus stop near the suburb of Bergsig and then went shopping with his wife. Afterwards he visited Chrissie Baadjies and later went for drinks at the house of a woman identified only as Hennah.

Jaftha said he went home at 8pm and went to sleep.

He was arrested while police were searching for Charmaine.

Investigating officer Inspector Fanie le Roux testified that Jaftha pointed out certain areas after which searchers found Charmaine‘s body.

“The child‘s body was full of maggots and badly decomposed,” he said.

There was a nylon bag over her head and he picked up a nylon rope near her body.

The cause of death could not be determined as the body was too decomposed.

No material linking Jaftha to Charmaine‘s death could be found on her body or on his clothing.

The defence put it to Le Roux that Jaftha was assaulted by police and was still suffering from a back injury.

Le Roux said the accused had hurt his back in a tractor accident. “I pulled his hospital records that prove this.”

Charmaine‘s aunt, Janetta Conradie, said the little girl and her friends often played at the rubbish dump and that she was there on the day of her disappearance.

Speaking outside the court, Charmaine‘s father, Daniel Loff, said: “I just want to know who killed my child and that the person responsible is properly punished.”

His older daughter from a previous relationship, Johanna Moses, 29, was found murdered in the same area a month after Charmaine‘s death.

The trial continues.

http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=421117

The Herald

19th May 2009

Child raped, body thrown into sewerage dam, says witness

MURDER accused Jaftha Andries told Kannaland Mayor Nicky Valentyn that he threw eight-year- old Charmaine Conradie‘s body into a sewerage dam after raping her, the Oudtshoorn Circuit Court heard yesterday.

“I saw her struggling and dived in to save her but she was already dead. Then I threw her in a hole,” Andries reportedly told Valentyn.

Andries, 43, is standing trial for his niece‘s abduction, rape and murder. The child went missing on February 8 last year and her decomposed body was found a week later near the Calitzdorp rubbish dump.

Andries, who has pleaded not guilty, was arrested during an extensive search for Charmaine after apparently acting suspiciously. During the search the town‘s sewerage dam was emptied.

Valentyn said Andries told him the day after his arrest that he threw the girl in the sewerage dam. He said he found Charmaine at the dump on the Friday of her disappearance and asked her to walk with him to the mountains.

“She walked with me voluntarily and we ate a piece of bread in the mountain,” Andries apparently said.

He said when he wanted to return to the rubbish dump the child did not want to go with.

He then tied her feet together and left her there.

Police station commissioner Captain Joey Strydom, Valentyn and Kannaland councillor Anthony Ewerts accompanied Andries to the area where he supposedly left the little girl but after searching for an hour, he claimed he could not remember the exact spot where he had left her as he had been drunk.

Valentyn told the court that Andries, who was taken back to the police van, called him over and told him he had been too embarrassed to say what had really happened to his niece. He then confided in Valentyn that he had raped the child in the mountains and that she had been covered in blood. He then took her back to the rubbish dump and raped her again.

Valentyn said Andries asked him to tell the police, which he did.

The accused then said he pushed Charmaine into the sewerage dam where she drowned before he could save her. He apparently told the mayor he had no choice but to hide the girl‘s body in a hole.

Later that night Andries asked Valentyn to visit him in jail, where he said he was sorry for what he had done as he knew Charmaine well and lived with her family. “I wanted very much to save her but I could not. You must help me,” he said to Valentyn.

On Wednesday, a different story about the little girl‘s last hours emerged in court when Owen Ryneveldt, who was in jail at the time Andries was awaiting trial, said the accused told him he and Isak van Rooyen found her at the rubbish dump and raped her repeatedly before bludgeoning her to death with a coke bottle.

They apparently decided to kill her and bury her in a warthog hole as she knew Andries and “would tell people”.

Van Rooyen was arrested and later released as he could not be positively linked to Conradie‘s death.

http://www.theherald.co.za/gardenroute/article.aspx?id=422696

The Herald

19th May 2009

Harrowing testimony in court of little girl’s final hours

EIGHT-year-old Charmaine Conradie was repeatedly raped before a plastic bag was pulled over her head.

She was then hit on the head with a Coke bottle filled with water and her body was hidden in a warthog hole, the Oudtshoorn Circuit Court heard yesterday.

The girl‘s uncle, Jaftha Andries, 43, is standing trial for her abduction, rape and murder in Calitzdorp in February last year.

The child went missing on February 8 and her decomposed body was found a week later near the Calitzdorp rubbish dump.

Andries was arrested during an extensive search for Charmaine after apparently acting suspiciously. He has pleaded not guilty.

Owen Ryneveldt, an inmate at the prison in Oudtshoorn where Andries was awaiting trial, described in detail what the accused apparently told him happened at the rubbish dump. Ryneveldt said Andries confided in him on February 16 last year, the day after he arrived at the jail.

He said Andries told him he had taken a lift into town with his employer on the Friday Charmaine disappeared. After that, he went to the rubbish dump where he drank and smoked dagga with Isak van Rooyen, also known as “Sakkie Tiep”.

Van Rooyen was also arrested in connection with Charmaine‘s death, but was later released as he could not be positively linked to the case.

Ryneveldt said Andries had told him the men saw Charmaine at the rubbish dump and called her over. Andries then started to rub her body.

The little girl started to cry when Andries asked her if he could “do business with her”.
“He said she was always very cheeky at home. Andries and Sakkie Tiep both raped the girl and then Sakkie Tiep said she had to be killed,” Ryneveldt said. He said Sakkie Tiep told Andries the girl “knows uncle and will tell people”.

The men pulled a plastic bag over Charmaine‘s head and hit her over the head with a Coke bottle. They burnt her underwear, placed her body in a hessian sack and hid it in a warthog hole.

Ryneveldt denied under cross-examination that he had threatened gang violence against Andries to make him talk.

Police Constable Elroy Quantini earlier testified that Andries was seen at the rubbish dump with a plastic bag hidden under his jacket on the morning he was arrested, three days before Charmaine‘s body was discovered.

Andries had apparently said he wanted to place the bag over his head in the event of rain. Quantini said Andries also had a knife on him.

The trial continues.

http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=422215

The Herald

21st May 2009

Cop refutes accused uncle’s claims

ALLEGATIONS that the police wanted to throw Calitzdorp murder accused Jaftha Andries from a high bridge were not true, Oudtshoorn detective head Inspector Thys Viljoen has told the circuit court.

Andries, 43, on trial for the abduction, rape and murder of his eight-year-old niece, Charmaine Conradie, in February last year, claimed police threatened to kill him and bury him under a pile of stones if he did not tell them where the girl was, defence attorney Wentzel Botha said.

Andries pointed out certain places and made statements because police had threatened him, he said.

However, Captain Geoffrey Gordon, the commander of the police‘s family violence, child abuse and sexual offences unit in Oudtshoorn, told the court Andries voluntarily offered to show police a “scene near the dam”.

Gordon said Andries told him he had not been assaulted by police. He and two other police officials walked with the accused in the direction of the mountain in Calitzdorp for Andries to point out scenes.

A short while later Andries complained that his back was sore and that the injury was as a result of a tractor accident.

On the way, they came across a snake and Andries started to cry. “He told us we had to turn around as he did not think the warthog hole was that far,” Gordon said.

On their return they came across a warthog hole but Andries told them the hole was old. “He told us the hole in which he hid the child was a fresh one.”

Near the sewerage dam, he pointed out the place where he raped Charmaine and at the dam he showed police the place where he pushed her into the water and later took her body out.

“He told me that he then carried the child into the veld and hid her body in a warthog hole,” Gordon said.

Botha said his client would deny the admissions to Gordon.

Last week, the court heard testimony from a former prisoner who claimed Andries told him he and another man had raped Charmaine and then beaten her to death with a water-filled cooldrink bottle before hiding her body in a warthog hole.

Kannaland Mayor Nicky Valentyn testified that Andries told him he had raped the girl and then pushed her into the sewerage dam, where she drowned.

He had then retrieved her body and buried it in a warthog hole.

http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=423197

The Herald

25th May 2009

Murder accused tells court of police death threats

MURDER accused Jaftha Andries yesterday told the Circuit Court in Oudtshoorn he was kicked by police and threatened with death, “behind a large cliff where no one could see” them.

Andries, 43, took the stand for the first time in his trial, in which he is accused of abducting, raping and murdering his eight-year-old niece, Charmaine Conradie, at the Calitzdorp rubbish dump in February last year.

He was testifying in a trial within a trial on the admissibility of evidence that he pointed out scenes to the police and made statements about her death.

On a number of occasions, Andries said he was with Charmaine in the mountains and at the Calitzdorp sewerage dam. His legal representative, Wentzel Botha, asked if that had really happened and Andries said he just said that because he was afraid he would be assaulted by police.

Andries said Oudtshoorn detective head Thys Viljoen did not tell the truth.

“He took me to the mountain with my hands cuffed in front of me. At the top, he made me sit on a boulder, kicked twice at my ribs and later at my back. He said I must say I murdered the child or he would kill me and bury my body under the stones.” Andries said Viljoen assaulted him “behind a big cliff where no one could see” them.

He denied knowing anything about a warthog hole. The court last week heard evidence from police, Kannaland mayor Nicky Valentyn, and Owen Ryneveldt, a prisoner when Andries was awaiting trial, that the accused told them he had hidden the girl‘s body in a warthog hole.

“When Captain Gordon asked me where I hid the child, I said she was in a warthog hole because I did not know where her little body was hidden,” Andries told the court.

Botha said statements Andries made before a magistrate in George should also not be admitted into evidence as these were also made under duress. “I was threatened by police to admit to a crime I did not commit,” his client apparently told him. He also said the court should discount evidence given by Ryneveldt as his criminal record made him an unreliable witness.

Judge Burton Fourie rejected the application. “The court is of the opinion Andries was not threatened,” he said.

http://www.theherald.co.za/gardenroute/article.aspx?id=423780

The Herald

25th May 2009

Mystery ‘uncle’ killed girl, court told

CHARMAINE Conradie, the eight-year-old girl found slain at the Calitzdorp rubbish dump in February last year, was “waiting for Uncle Gert to give her money” on the day she disappeared, accused Jaftha Andries told the Circuit Court in Oudtshoorn yesterday.

Andries, 43, charged with abduction, rape and murder, admitted earlier this week to having been with her at the tip on the day she disappeared.

He said he had told his lawyer this three weeks before the trial in a written report on a prison visit from his only friend, Isak van Rooyen.

Andries said yesterday he had seen the girl and two friends at the tip and suggested they go home as it was getting late.

“Charmaine said they were waiting for Uncle Gert, who had promised her R10. Her friends went home with Isak. The deceased waited there and when I walked across the road, I saw Gert going to Charmaine.

“Sakkie Tiep told me in the cells I had been innocently jailed, that it was not I who had raped and murdered the child.”

Van Rooyen says Andries was at home with his wife.

Andries said he had made admissions to the police, a prisoner and the Kannaland mayor because of threats.

A 28s gang member, Wilfred Solomons, testified that prisoner Owen Ryneveldt threatened to hit Andries with a pool cue if he did not confess.

The court is hearing a trial within a trial on the admissibility of statements by Andries, who claims he has been singled out by members of the public and gangsters in prison.

http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=424887

Legalbrief Today

Mon 25 May 2009

Murder accused changes story for third time

Calitzdorp murder accused Jaftha Andries has changed his testimony for the third time when recalling the details in the Oudtshoorn Circuit Court of the last time he saw his niece, Charmaine Conradie (8 ).

The Herald reports that Andries is accused of abducting, raping and murdering the child in February last year. She disappeared and her decomposed body was found a week later at the Calitzdorp rubbish dump. He has denied the charges. After Judge Burton Fourie refused an application by the defence to have statements by Andries and scenes he pointed out to police ruled as inadmissible, Andries was asked to detail his activities from the day Conradie disappeared until his arrest two days before her body was discovered. According to the report, Fourie said he would make his reasons for the ruling known at the end of the trial.

http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=2009052308380862