Cape Town – A man, who allegedly murdered his girlfriend’s one-year-old baby, has tried to commit suicide in a police holding cell.
The Daily Voice can reveal that the suspect slit his wrists while in the holding cells at Kensington Police Station on Monday night.
He then left a message, written in his own blood, on the cell wall in which he admitted to killing the little boy.
Police confirmed that Jeremiah Ruiters’ 30-year-old mother has also been arrested.
She will face a charge of child neglect when the Kensington couple appears in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, police spokesperson Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana said.
It is alleged her 26-year-old boyfriend beat and stabbed Jeremiah before taking him to the Kensington clinic, where he was declared dead on arrival.
He had serious head and body injuries, including stab wounds to his neck and arms.
The suspects, who may not be named until they’ve appeared in court, live in a Wendy house in Salmander Square. They’ve been together for a year.
The mother is six months pregnant with her fourth child.
On Tuesday, Jeremiah’s grandfather, well-known community leader Pastor Ronald Ruiters, revealed shocking details of what had happened inside the prison cell when the suspect tried to commit suicide.
Pastor Ruiters says a message written in blood read: “It is not [mother’s name], it is me [his own name].”
Ruiters says it looks like the suspect tried to clear the mother’s name by taking the blame and then taking his own life.
Ruiters believes the act is “ritualistic” and of the occult.
“When someone writes in blood, it is Satanism,” the holy man says.
An image of the inside of the prison cell was leaked to the Daily Voice.
In it the suspected killer is lying face down in his own blood.
There’s also blood on the bunk next to him and blood dripping from his hand.
Ruiters says his daughter, a single mom who worked at a retailer in Epping, left Jeremiah in her boyfriend’s care, just like she had been doing for the past year.
The mother has two other kids aged four and nine, but is estranged from their dad.
“He took the child to clinic and it was around 12pm. When he got there, the child was dead,” says the pastor.
The grandfather bursts into tears when he describes his grandson’s horrific injuries.
“The child was brutally murdered. My question is how can anyone do that to a child?
“There are head injuries, there were stab wounds on his arms and in his neck.”
“My daughter was arrested for child neglect.
“The law must take its course, I am not going to stand in the way,” he says.
Ruiters claims the murder suspect is a drug addict.
“I understand on the day of the murder he bought R50 dagga and R30 tik. I knew of the dagga, but not the tik.
“The child was in Red Cross Children’s Hospital earlier this year for an arm injury and now it makes me think,” he says.
Grandmother Gail Ruiters said the child often spent time with the suspect and didn’t notice anything wrong.