Could a South African invention that has found live as well as dead bodies be used on the international mystery case of the missing Madeleine McCann?
This is the question that many are asking in the wake of Sunday's riveting Carte Blanche programme which told how the invention had possibly solved South Africa's own mystery: the disappearance of six young girls who are believed to have perished at the hands of infamous paedophile Gert van Rooyen and his accomplice, Joey Haarhoff, back in the late l980s.
While the inventor, former police colonel Danie Krugel of Bloemfontein, and Carte Blanche are loathe to comment on the Madeleine issue, it is not the only question being posed.
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For the technology in Krugel's invention - it is called the Matter Orientation System (MOS) - took viewers to a deserted area, beyond reeds at a dried up dam close to the railway line in Capital Park, less than two kilometres from Van Rooyen's home at 227 Malherbe Street, Capital Park, Pretoria - the last place where the missing girls were thought to have been.
| 'Amazed at the implications of the findings' |
Krugel initially used hair from two of the missing girls to pinpoint the area.
Later, he used hair samples from another two... and the same spot was identified.
His invention uses a small sample of signature and "like" material - such as a single hair - to "geographically pinpoint the main body from which it was sourced", Carte Blanche explained to viewers.
Exactly how it works remains a closely-guarded secret, but TV viewers were told: "The invention is thought to be based on quantum physics, and a global positioning system, or GPS, is used to define the search area."
The hair used at the beginning of the investigation belonged to Anne-Marie Wapenaar, 12, who disappeared in September, l989, from Kempton Park (with her friend Odette Boucher, 12) and Yolanda Wessels, 12, who also vanished from Kempton Park two months afterwards.
| 'Controlled environment testing is currently under way' |
Later, he used a hair found in a toy belonging to Fiona Harvey, 11, who disappeared from Pietermaritzburg on December 22, l988, as well as a single hair found between the pages of a schoolbook belonging to Joan Horn, 13, who vanished from Pretoria in June, l989.
The sixth missing schoolgirl was Tracey-Lee Scott-Crossley, 13, who disappeared in Randburg in August, l988.
Having pinpointed the same spot time and again using hair samples from Anne-Marie and Yolanda, the area was excavated and many bone fragments were recovered.
Carte Blanche sent the bones for DNA testing and everyone was "amazed at the implications of the findings", viewers were told.
For the results identified DNA from six humans: four males and two females.
Now the big question, says Krugel, is: "Did this paedophile only kill girls, or was he also interested in boys as well?"
Krugel is confident that he had found the exact area where Van Rooyen buried his victims.
He has had many successes using his MOS and, after being called in by the police in Brandfort in the Free State to search for a missing five-year-old girl, he was able to find little Naledi Ntebele's body within 20 minutes.
He was also able to pinpoint the area where a murder suspect was located, and a letter from the police station commissioner at Navalsig, Bloemfontein, says that but for the help of Krugel, the arrest would not have been possible.
Carte Blanche told how "he only needed the beard stubble on a razor to pinpoint the location of a murder suspect".
When Krugel first got involved in the investigation, he tested the hair samples of Anne-Marie and Yolanda from his base in Bloemfontein - and both times got positive signals coming from Gauteng, hundreds of kilometres away.
He then went to the empty stand where Van Rooyen's house once stood to further refine the search.
He conducted another 13 readings, and every time it led to exactly the same spot, which was also very close to where Van Rooyen and Haarhoff died following a police chase.
Their deaths, by shooting, ended their reign of terror, but the couple took their dark secrets - and the whereabouts of the missing girls - with them.
"My equipment showed me where these girls were. There was no doubt they were dead. It is now is in the hands of the police to take it further," said Krugel, who added that it had been "total chaos" since the programme was screened, with countless people contacting him to congratulate him.
"I'm really grateful to Carte Blanche for calling me in to help solve this mystery."
Krugel, director of security service at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, who has spent five years developing his MOS, has now entered into exclusive negotiations "with undisclosed parties" under a confidentiality agreement which may lead to the sale of the MOS's intellectual property rights.
"It is anticipated that the MOS will have far reaching application, being able to identify and locate like for like matter, to assist with matter detection in criminal investigations, forensic and medical applications, geology and mining as well as bio-chemical matter detection.
"Controlled environment testing is currently under way," explained a spokesperson for Krugel.
Although the police were unable to link Tracey-Lee to Van Rooyen, a clairvoyant called in by the programme, Marietta Theunissen, believed a pair of children's sandals found at the site identified by Krugel were connected to the missing girl.
Carte Blanche is to hand over its dossier of evidence to the police.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Daily News on August 02, 2007
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