The Gert van Rooyen murders (South Africa)

If you live in South Africa you’ll know about this man: Gert van Rooyen.

Cornelius Gerhardus van Rooyebn was an alleded paedophile and serial killer, who abducted and allegedly kidnapped and murdered 6 young girls. He worked together with his partner Joey Haarhof and when they were faced with arrest they committed suicide.

Gert van Rooyen is one of the most notorious criminals we have in South Africa, and his crimes still haunt many families in our country. His first crimes were theft, after which he was sent to a reform school in 1954. He was imprisoned again in 1960 for stealing motor spares and clothing.

In 1979 he kidnapped two young girls, forced them to strip naked and perform sexual acts. He released them the next day. He was then arrested and sentenced to four year imprisonment for his crimes. He was released however after only serving 3 years.

In 1988 after divorcing his wife, Gert started dating Joey Haarhof. It was thought that Gert used Joeye to lure  young girls to him, contacting Children’s homes and requesting to bring young girls home for the holidays and weekends.

His crimes were spread from August 1988 to January 1990.

Some of his victims include:        Tracy-Lee Scott-Crossley

                                                                Fiona Harvey

                                                                Joan Horn

                                                                Janet Delport

                                                                Rosa Piel

                                                                Odette Boucher

                                                                Anne-Mari Wapenaar

                                                                Yolanda Wessels

In 1990, 16 year old Joan Booysen was abducted by Haarhof. She was taken to Van Rooyens home, drugged, handcuffed and sexually assaulted before being locked up in a cupboard. She managed to escape however, and alerted the police, who placed the home under surveillance. Van Rooyend, after realising this was the end, shot Haarhof and then himself.

All the above disappearances, except Rosa Piel and Tracy-Lee Scott-Crossley, were linked to Van Rooyen and Haarhof by witness statements and forensic evidence. Non of the victims were ever found, despite extensive police searches of all his known premises. Psychics have even tried to locate the correct areas where the bodies might be, but nothing was ever found.

In 1996 his house was donated to the police by the local bank, for the police to do more investigations on the house, but nothing was ever found. In March 2007 there was renewed interest in the case as some bones were found at a beach in Kwazulu-Natal near a holiday resort that van Rooyen and Haarhof had visited, but DNA testing revealed that none of these bones belonged to any of the victims.

In November of the same year (2007) more bones were found on a property next to van Rooyens house in Pretoria. Local authorities were alerted and the bones are still being investigated to determine whether they are indeed human, and that of the missing girls.

The Natalee Halloway Saga

You might remember the story of Natalee Halloway.

She was in Aruba as a graduation party with more than a 100 fellow students when she disappeared, never to be seen again.

On May 30, 2005, when Natalee Holloway disappeared after leaving a bar in Aruba, Joran Van der Sloot, then 17 years old, immerged as the chief suspect in the case. Some of Natalee’s friends confirmed that she was last seen with this man. Joran was questioned but according to Natalee’s parents the police in Aruba was not of much help. Joran admitted that he was with Natalee, and that Natalee was drunk, he said that he fondled her in the back of the car while his two friends were in the back seat after which they dropped her at her hotel.

Natalee was never at the hotel that night, as confirmed by her mother after watching surveillance tapes. Although Joran was arrested twice in the case, no charges were ever filed against him in the Holloway case.

Five years to the day later, Stephany Flores Ramirez, 21, was killed in a hotel room rented to Van der Sloot, who was in Lima, Peru to participate in a poker tournament. After he fled to Chile, he was arrested and returned to Peru to face murder charges.

Seems that the Natalee Halloway case might be looked at again.

What’s your opinion on this case?

Theodore Bundy

The story of Ted Bundy is an interesting tale to tell.

Ted Bundy was one of America’s most infamous serial killers, admitting to the murders of 30 victims, but some suspect there might have been more.

Not only did he murder these young women, but he brutally attacked them, some bodies were also never found.

I’ve been fascinated with this man for a long time. The first time I saw him on tv I thought he was rather attractive, and I still think he was, but then I found out who he was, a serial killer, but how could someone that looked so ordinary be such an awful person.

Ted Bundy was a handsome, smart guy. Not only did he study psychology but also law. So what made him hate women so much?

Some ideas are of his childhood. Ted grew up thinking that his grandmother was his mother and his grandparents his parents. Later (about high school or early college years, some differ on this) Ted found out the truth, and I must admit that that had to be pretty traumatic. He eventually got that famous surname from his stepfather, Johnny Bundy.

As a child he was rather shy and did not have a natural sense of getting along with people. He says “I didn’t know made things tick. I didn’t know what made people want to be friends. I didn’t know what made people attractive to one another.”

As said previously Ted studied psychology. Here he had to work as a volunteer at the Seattle’s Suicide Hot Line where he met the crime writer Ann Rule, who worked the night shift with him. It’s strange to think that someone so cruel and murderous was giving sound advice to people in need.

It’s also here that he met his girlfriend, who some believe he modeled his victims on. She had long brown hair parted in the middle, just like most of his victims. It’s said that when she left him because he was immature, that was a terrible blow to Bundy, another reason for him to maybe hate women.

Ted later came back into this girlfriend’s life, just to make her fall in love with him and then to dump her when she thought they would be together forever.

To get back to the murders, Ted usually victimized young girls living on campus in sorority houses or in flats.

Here are some information about the victims and the murders

“Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974, Bundy entered the basement bedroom of 18-year-old "Joni Lenz" (a pseudonym), a dancer and student at UW. Bundy bludgeoned her with a metal rod from her bed frame while she slept and sexually assaulted her with a speculum.^[32] Lenz was found the next morning by her roommates lying in a pool of her own blood. She was in a coma for ten days, but she survived the attack.”

“Bundy's next victim was Lynda Ann Healy, another UW student (and his cousin's roommate). In the early morning of February 1, 1974, Bundy broke into Healy's room, knocked her unconscious, dressed her in jeans and a shirt, wrapped her in a bed sheet, and carried her away.”

And so all college girls became afraid, because more and more of them were dissapearing.

Ted Bundy drove his VW bug, a brown color, and would use a fake sling or crutches to get his prey into his car by asking them to help him to carry some stuff to his car. Why wouldn’t any young girl help this attractive young man? Little did they know what a monster he was?

There were many victims that he lured this way, some got away, and others never made it.

One thing that makes these murders even more chilling is that not only did Ted rape these young women, he assaulted them, he raped them, he took their bodies, dressed them in fresh clothing, put make up on their faces and then raped them several times until the bodies were to rotten. Only much later did families get relief and a sense that things were over for their daughters when their bones were found in the woods.

When Ted was finally caught, he escaped; he was caught again, escaped again, and then finally caught for the last time. The last time he was caught he was sentenced to death. Ted Bundy eventually died in the electric chair on 7:06 a.m. on January 24, 1989.

Here are some of the things that were present in Ted Bundy’s car the first time he was caught. The police officer pulled him over and was suspicious of these things that he found.

 The last mug shot of Ted Bundy after he was found guilty of killing the 12 year old Kimberley Leach and sentenced to death.

After hearing the verdict of guilt.

Here is a list of his victims. Only 28 are mentioned here, although he confessed to more:

• Washington
• Katherine Merry Divine, 15
• Joni Lenz, 18
• Lynda Ann Healy, 21
• Donna Gail Manson, 19
• Susan Elaine Rancourt,19
• Roberta Kathleen Parks, 20
• Brenda Baker, 15
• Brenda Carol Ball,22
• Georgeann Hawkins, 18
• Janice Ott, 23
• Denise Naslund,18
• Colorado
• Caryn Campbell,24
• Julie Cunningham, 26
• Denise Oliverson,24
• Melanie Cooley, 18
• Shelly K. Robertson, 24
• Utah
• Melissa Smith,17
• Laura Aimes, 17
• Nancy Baird, 23
• Nancy Wilcox, 16
• Debi Kent, 17
• Carol DaRonch, 19
• Sue Curtis, 15
• Debbie Smith, 17
• Oregon
• Roberta Cathleen, 20
• Rita Lorraine Jolly, 17
• Vicki Lynn Hollar, 24
• Idaho
• Lynette Culver, 13
• Florida
• Margaret Bowman, 21
• Lisa Levy, 20
• Kathy Kleiner, 21
• Karen Chandler, 21
• Cheryl Thomas, 21
• Kimberly Leach, 12

 

Infamous murderer Theodore Bundy

Crime is something I think all countries have in common.
You can't tell me that you live in a place where there is no crime what so ever...

I'm a first year student of criminal psychology and criminology is very fascinating to me.

I love to do research on serial killers and other criminals and I love watching the Crime and Investigation channel. They way that a criminals mind works is utterly fascinating.

I recently finished reading The Stranger Beside me by Ann Rule and it gave me chills.

For those of you who don't know this story, you should follow the link, its the story of Ted Bundy and how Ann Rule knew him, wrote letters to him and sent him money in prison. She could not believe at first that this man that she knew was the one responsible for committing this heinous crimes... although in the back of her mind she knew it must be him.

Stories like this are really interesting to me.

Tell me about what your favorite crime book is?
Who's your favorite author etc?

Have fun and don't be afraid of the dark now...