Jurgen Vandekeere, 42, in court on Monday.
PHOTO: Isabel Venter/Netwerk24
- The trial of a man accused of raping a woman,
slitting her throat and bathing her body in 2011 is finally under way. - Chantelle Barnard was found dead in a house on a
smallholding in Benoni in April 2011. - Jurgen Vandekeere was arrested for the murder, but
skipped bail in 2013. He handed himself over to police in January.
A murder trial that has been on hold for almost a
decade finally got under way on Monday.
Belgian national Jurgen Karel Gunther Vandekeere,
42, is accused of killing Chantelle Barnard, 20, in Benoni in April 2011.
The 20-year-old was allegedly raped and her throat was
slit before her killer bathed her body, News24 reported at the time.
Suzette Barnard found the body of her daughter in a
house on a smallholding in Benoni, where the victim and her mother had lived.
Chantelle had gone there to give her mother keys. The last time anyone had
heard of her was around noon on 1 April that year.
Her family started searching for her when she did
not answer her cellphone and a neighbour later reported that they had heard
someone screaming on the smallholding in the afternoon. Suzette went to the
smallholding and banged on the doors until the caretaker opened them for her.
She asked Vandekeere, who is the caretaker’s son, to remove bandages from his
hand and said she could see a bite mark.
READ | Woman raped, killed then bathed
A blanket was lying in a pool of blood in the
lounge. She ran through the house and found her daughter’s body in one of the
bedrooms. She told Beeld newspaper at the time it appeared that the body had
been bathed.
“Chantelle was lying naked on the floor and I
could only see the right side of her face. There was not even a drop of blood
on her body but her hair was wet and a container with make-up was next to her
body.”
Handed over after 7 years on the run
Suzette Barnard told The Star newspaper: “She
was so cold and the cut to her throat was so deep. She looked like a porcelain
doll, soft and peaceful on the one side, [but] on the other side of her face it
was blue.”
Vandekeere, then 33, was then arrested and appeared
in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court.
After he was granted bail in 2013, Vandekeere fled
and had been on the run for seven years until he handed
himself over to police in January this year, Netwerk24 reported.
On Monday, Vandekeere reportedly pleaded not guilty to
charges of murder, rape and defeating the ends of justice.
The trial continues.
– Compiled
by Riaan Grobler
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