Dismembered, decomposing and naked was how a cop described the body of Charmaine Mare.
|||Cape Town - Scorched, dismembered, decomposing and naked was how a Kraaifontein police officer described the body of Mpumalanga teenager Charmaine Mare, 16, found dumped in the northern suburbs.
Constable Timothy Schierhout testified in the Western Cape High Court that he was the first police officer on the scene of the gruesome discovery.
The stench hit Schierhout when he got out of the police vehicle.
Charmaine’s body was found in a secluded area between the Kraaifontein shooting range and Buh-Rein Estate on Darwin Road on January 14.
The State alleges Johannes de Jager had murdered her three days earlier at a house in Elterman Street. He is also on trial for the 2008 murder of sex worker Hiltina Alexander, 18.
It is alleged De Jager murdered Charmaine after she rejected his sexual advances. But De Jager has denied this. In his plea explanation, he said they were supposed to meet his family at the V&A Waterfront on January 11. Charmaine frustrated him by taking too long to get ready. He said he grabbed her arm in the bathroom and she slipped and hit her head against the bath.
De Jager said that when he realised she was dead he “foolishly” hid the body in a drain. Two days later, when he decided to move the body, he had to cut off the limbs to get it out of the drain. Then he set the torso alight in an open field.
Schierhout said he and his partner had arrived at the scene at 12.40pm on January 14. “I could smell the body was decomposing, it was very bad.”
Schierhout cordoned off the area, and while waiting for forensic investigators he noticed a bra and a black top. “On the pavement I found blood spatter as well as drag marks. We found bits of hair in the grass.”
Earlier, forensic pathologist Deidre Abrahams testified that she had examined Hiltina’s body on May 20, 2008.
She had been raped both vaginally and anally before being strangled. Based on the sunburn on her face and neck and the presence of fly eggs on her face, Abrahams said she had been dead for “a day or two” before her body was found on May 18, 2008.
The trial continues on Monday.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus