Sex worker Hiltina Alexander’s earring, found in the bakkie of Johannes de Jager, has been lost by police.
|||Cape Town - Sex worker Hiltina Alexander’s earring, found in the bakkie of her alleged killer, has been lost.
Philadelphia police station clerk Ashraf Muller told the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday that he was responsible for all evidence material that was booked in at the station before it was taken to the forensic laboratory.
Sakkie Maartens, for murder accused Johannes de Jager, asked Muller whether he knew what had happened to the earring that was found in the back of De Jager’s bakkie when he was arrested on June 3, 2008. “...The earring is no longer at the station,” Muller said. “When it was booked out to the lab it had stickers on it, but it never came back.”
Muller said investigating officer Captain Michael Volkwyn brought in several exhibits - Alexander’s camouflage pants, samples of De Jager’s hair and blood, his revolver, a holster, a Pick n Pay receipt and the pink, oval-shaped earring - to the station after the arrest.
De Jager has pleaded not guilty to murdering both Alexander, 18, in May 2008, and Charmaine Maré, 16, on January 11 this year, before dismembering her corpse.
On Wednesday, Muller told the court Volkwyn signed out the exhibits on June 5, 2008. They were supposed to have been taken to the forensic laboratory in Delft, but Volkwyn never took them there. Muller said Volkwyn brought the exhibits back to the storeroom and took them to the laboratory only on June 13. But there was no record of this in the exhibit register. Maartens asked Muller whether there was any record to show that the exhibits were booked out on June 13. “In my statement,” Muller responded.
Maartens asked him if he was referring to a statement that he made two years later - in January 2011. Muller agreed, saying the information was obtained from the exhibit register.
On Tuesday, when Volkwyn was asked whether he knew what happened to the earring, he said: “The register shows I handed it in at Philadelphia police station.”
“And you cannot help us as to where this earring is or what happened to it?” Maartens asked. “No,” said Volkwyn.
The prosecution has not yet led evidence in connection with Charmaine’s murder. De Jager took police to the places where he dumped her limbs.
The trial continues.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus