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Jurgen Vandekeere, 42, in court 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 underway.
- Chantelle Barnard was found dead in a house on a small property in Benoni in April 2011.
- Jurgen Vandekeere was arrested for the murder, but bailed out in 2013. He turned himself in to police in January.
A murder trial that has been on hold for nearly a decade finally began on Monday.
Belgian citizen 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 slit her throat before her killer bathed her body, News24 reported at the time.
Suzette Barnard found her daughter’s body in a house on a plot in Benoni, where the victim and her mother had lived. Chantelle had gone there to give her mother the keys. The last time anyone had heard of her was around noon on April 1 of that year.
Her family began looking for her when she did not answer her cell phone and a neighbor later reported that they had heard someone yelling at the small plot in the afternoon. Suzette went to the lot and banged on the doors until the janitor opened them. She asked Vandekeere, who is the caretaker’s son, to remove the bandages from her hand and said she could see a bite mark.
READ | Woman raped, murdered and then bathed
There was a blanket in a pool of blood in the living room. She ran through the house and found her daughter’s body in one of the bedrooms. She told the Beeld newspaper at the time that it appeared the body had been bathed.
“Chantelle was naked on the floor and I could only see the right side of her face. There was not a drop of blood on her body but her hair was wet and a container of makeup was next to her body.”
Delivered after 7 years on the run
Suzette Barnard told The Star newspaper: “She was very cold and the cut in her throat was so deep. She looked like a porcelain doll, soft and peaceful on one side.” [but] on the other side of his face it was blue. “
Vandekeere, then 33, was arrested and appeared before the Benoni Court of First Instance.
After he was granted bail in 2013, Vandekeere was on the run and on the run for seven years until he turned himself in to police in January this year, Netwerk24 reported.
On Monday, Vandekeere reportedly pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, rape and nullification of the purposes of justice.
The trial continues.
– Compiled by Riaan Grobler
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