FOUR locations have been identified as crucial to the investigation into the murder of paediatrician Dr Louis Heyns.
Weekend Argus reporter HENRIËTTE GELDENHUYS retraces the journey Heyns took the night he died.
1. Helderview, Somerset West
Heyns said goodbye to his brother Christo at 8.30pm on Wednesday, May 22, after the two had supper at Christo’s home in Helderview.
Heyns told his brother he was looking forward to spending the rest of the evening at his home in Parow, doing what he enjoyed most – preparing lectures to deliver the next day at the health sciences faculty of Stellenbosch University, at the Tygerberg campus, which is close to his home.
That was the last time his family heard from the paediatrician, said to be exceptionally gifted.
At some point after 8.30pm, the State alleges, Heyns, 59, was accosted by Marthinus “Theuns” van der Walt, 33, and his brother, Sarel, 42.
2. De Beers Way, Somerset West
A mere 3.5km from his brother’s home, in De Beers Way adjacent to the Somerset Mall shopping centre, the Van der Walt brothers allegedly attacked and killed Heyns by beating, kicking and strangling him, says their charge sheet.
They are also charged with robbing him of his dark grey Peugeot 308, cellphone, a gold ring, a pair of takkies, his identity document and a Cape Consumer’s card.
Somerset Mall, situated between Somerset West and the Strand, is the biggest shopping centre in the area.
De Beers road is busy during the day and is home to a primary and secondary school. But at night it’s dark and quiet.
Few cars and even fewer people passed there when Weekend Argus visited the area one night this week.
Tall trees line the road, and most of its street lights are out.
From De Beers Road, the green and red lights of restaurants Die Kelder and Primi Piatti, which form part of the Somerset Mall and border on the Somerset West golf course, are visible. But there’s no sound.
3. Beach Road, Strand
Three kilometres from De Beers Way lies the Strand beachfront spot Lover’s Lane – an area notorious as a gay prostitute pick-up spot – where Heyns’s body was dumped.
Residents of Malmesbury, where the Van der Walts are well-known among the locals, say the Van der Walt brothers were known for prostituting themselves to support their tik habit.
It’s just a five-minute drive via two traffic circles and one set of traffic lights to get to Lover’s Lane.
Police say the killers dumped Heyns’s body there at about 4am on May 23, seven-and-a-half hours after he left his brother’s house.
The body of Heyns was found in a shallow grave amongst small sand dunes covered with milkwood trees, not far from a footpath leading to the beach.
When Weekend Argus visited the spot this week, the only sign that something horrible had happened there were two bunches of sunflowers and a bunch of roses, plus a picture of the doctor next to the note: “We did not know you, but know that you are without fear, pain and suffering. May God give you a special place.”
4. Wesbank, Malmesbury
The accused are alleged to have left the Strand after burying the body, then drove Heyns’s car to a chop shop in Wesbank in Malmesbury.
One of the accused, Sarel van der Walt, allegedly worked there part-time and so had keys to the business.
The State alleges that the brothers dismantled the car in the huge yard, which Weekend Argus found filled with the empty shells of vehicle, bicycle and truck wrecks.
For the next seven days, Heyns’s distraught family were beside themselves waiting for news, and hoping he would be found alive.
A breakthrough came on Wednesday last week, when police arrested the Van der Walt brothers. One of the brothers, according to police, pointed out the location of Heyns’s body.
Juan Liedeman, the owner of the alleged chop shop, was arrested a day later, on May 30. Police conducted a search-and-seizure operation at his yard.
Weekend Argus