INLSA

15/09/2011 Former top sleuth Piet Byleveld during the launch of his book Byleveld -Dossier of a serial sleuth, by Hanlie Retief on Thursday. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

By Diane de Beer

How many of us know a cop’s name? Not in the sense of neighbourhood, but famous. When reading Hanlie Retief’s account of Piet Byleveld’s life aptly titled Byleveld – Dossier of a Serial Sleuth, one realises he is probably our only well-known cop in the sense that no one wonders who you’re talking about when you say his name.

“It’s not as if I was out there looking for publicity,” says the almost shy sleuth as we meet at a Pretoria News/WritersSpeak event last week at which he was the guest speaker. In fact, much of Byleveld’s life has been spent zooming in on one crime or another, with very little time or space for any real life.

His true success in the world of sleuthing he ascribes to old-fashioned policework. And the only time he becomes hot under the collar is when someone asks him about psychics and whether he would consider using them in a case. That’s not what he wants to rely on when trying to catch the culprit.

And even the latest technology is not his first port of call. Many weeks had passed in the heart-breaking search for the blonde student who had disappeared into thin air just before her 21st birthday, Leigh Matthews, when Byleveld was called in to crack the case – and of course he did. That’s why he has this astonishing reputation.

But the way he goes about solving a crime is much more exciting than any episode of CSI or Law and Order. He starts at the beginning and goes to the source – the victim.

Disregarding even the police dockets and anything they had amassed, he began, in Matthews’s case, by really looking at the young student’s life, everything she did, everyone who was part of it and everywhere she went or phone calls she received. It was one call from a former classmate that had him wondering. And when he checked hotels in the vicinity and found that this same student had booked in for two nights around the time she was kidnapped, he knew he was heading in the right direction.

When you talk to him about methodology, he confirms that it is the hard slog that usually gets the work done. That and winning the trust of everyone involved.

Especially in the case of serial killers, it is important to gain their trust. This was one of the first things he discovered when dealing with his first serial killers.

“It’s almost as if they want to tell someone,” he says. But first, of course, you have to know that these are your killers and this is where the super sleuth status emerges.

Beyleveld also believes that much of his success has to do with the way he treats people – all people – with respect. “Even criminals,” he says. “I’m not there to judge, that happens in court.”

But gaining the respect of the law fraternity, especially those involved in particular cases, was also a big deal and help. If there’s anything he knows, it is that you have to have everything in place.

The only case that didn’t go his way was because witnesses let him down, but he is realistic about those who get away. “They will do some-thing again and get caught,” he says matter-of-factly.

For Byleveld, one murder is one too many and his focus was house burglaries in the beginning, those that escalated into murder.

We all know that most of the time, you make your own luck and in Byleveld’s case, it is his now well-earned reputation that precedes him. For example, Sheldean Human’s young killer had clippings of Byleveld’s previous cases.

So once the super cop has marked his man, it’s as if they know he will break the case. “I hate losing,” he says, and describes his work as a calling, not simply a career.

Chat to him about unsolved cases or those that have been controversial and he will talk to you about his own point of view – and because this is Byleveld, one immediately knows he has looked at the case and has some insight.

One of the reasons he spent so much of his time at work in the past was a miserable private life.

But these days, the gentle Piet is smiling. He is getting married in December to the beautiful Elize Louw. Already he defers to her in most things, even when answering a tricky question, he checks if the woman in his life is happy.

Piet Byleveld is someone we are all rooting for – a knight in shining armour, not the one who knocks you off your feet but the one to prove to crime-weary South Africans that there is a way to get the bad guys.

When he speaks about today’s police service, he knows there are problems but he also vows there are many good guys on the job, hardworking guys. “You can’t sit behind a desk and get fat. You have to be out there working the case.”

He believes crime is slowly going in the right direction – down. But nothing will stop him fighting the good fight. These days he consults and, with his reputation, the calls just keep coming.

He also has sweeter things on his mind these days and with the woman he dedicates his life to at his side, he hopes to maintain much more of a balance. He’s earned at least that.