By Warda Meyer and Lavern de Vries
A team of investigators has arrived in Cape Town to probe the unsolved murders of at least 21 boys believed to have been killed by the Station Strangler.
The development follows a Cape Argus investigation into a spate of murders targeting boys who were lured away, raped, strangled and buried in bushes near railway stations during two killing rampages, one in the 1980s and the other in the 1990s.
Fifteen years after the man dubbed the Station Strangler, Norman Afzal Simons, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Elroy van Rooyen, the Cape Argus has learnt that a team of investigators from Pretoria has been set the task of scrutinising the cases in which he was not convicted.
Simons was convicted based on a confession, which he formally repudiated before a magistrate. No forensic evidence was led to link him to the murder of Elroy.
Senior officers from the Investigative Psychology Unit, Criminal Records and Forensic Science Services are expected to stay in the city for another week reviewing evidence and completing preliminary inquiries. The Cape Argus understands that the team is headed by Professor Gerard Labuschagne who is also the head of the unit.
The inquiries include meeting investigators who probed the murders in the 1980s and the 1990s, as well as the officers involved in the inquests of the murdered boys.
The Cape Argus has been reliably informed that the unit has been given the investigation and it has tried to obtain access to interview Simons in prison.
Last night Labuschagne refused to confirm or comment on his unit's involvement in the investigation.
Although a magistrate found that there was prima facie evidence suggesting that Simons, a former primary school teacher, could have been involved in the killings, he has never been prosecuted for any of the 21 child murders he is suspected of perpetrating.
In addition to the 21, the Strangler may have killed other children.
During an inquest into the deaths of some of the boys, the court did not foresee a successful prosecution and did not recommend that further investigations be opened.
However, senior officers are now questioning whether nine boys in the 1980s and another 12 during the 1990s were killed by one individual and whether the same person or persons is responsible for both sets of murders.
Questions have also been raised about a Joburg suspect who some investigators believe could be linked to the murders.
The man is known to have used a ruse similar to that attributed to the Strangler - offering his targets money to carry boxes - to lure his victims to their fate.
Though investigators have sought for months to test the suspect against forensic samples collected from crimes scenes associated with the Cape Town Strangler, they have yet to achieve any results.
The suspect refused to submit to having semen and blood samples taken on a voluntary basis and police have not yet secured an order to compel him to make samples available.
Investigators have also had little success in persuading the relevant law enforcement authorities to make the suspect available for identification line-ups so witnesses linked to the Strangler murders can participate.
The Cape Argus understands that several DNA specimens found at the Cape burial grounds, most of which were concentrated in Mitchells Plain and which were never tested, will now be tested and compared against available samples.
Mitchells Plain Community Policing Forum spokesman Michael Jacobs said yesterday that the CPF supported any endeavours to catch the killer or killers.
"For years our children's parents have been living in anguish and can't find closure because they don't know what happened to their children or who really killed them.
"We ask that the police get to the bottom of this for their sakes and that, if Simons is innocent, that justice prevails for both him and the victims' families."
Jacobs said the investigation should be made public to elicit support from people most affected by the killings and to give the families' insight into developments.
Although Labuschagne has refused to comment, national Police Commissioner Bheki Cele's office has confirmed that the police received a letter from the province's Community Safety MEC, Lennit Max, asking that the cases be revisited, following the Cape Argus investigation.