Murder accused shopped for new carpet

Danish millionaire Preben Povlsen's Ugandan wife, Maria Povlsen, escorted to Strand Magistrate Court. Photo: Henk Kruger

Danish millionaire Preben Povlsen's Ugandan wife, Maria Povlsen, escorted to Strand Magistrate Court. Photo: Henk Kruger

Published Jun 6, 2012

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A carpet fitter has identified two people charged with the murder of Danish millionaire Preben Povlsen as the customers who ordered carpets on the day of the murder.

Denver Miller, who worked for Mats Carpets in Somerset West, testified in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday that Povlsen’s Ugandan wife, Maria Povlsen and former child soldier Francis Kimeze visited the store on January 14, 2008.

Miller said he distinctly remembered the duo because he saw their pictures published in a local newspaper and because they used the staff entrance that day.

It is the State’s case that the two and Maria’s sister, Stella Ssengendo, murdered Povlsen at his Gordon’s Bay home and set his body alight. Povlsen had been stabbed more than 40 times and his neck was broken.

His body was dumped in a bushy area close to Otto du Plessis Drive in Bloubergstrand.

A post-mortem on Povlsen’s body on January 21, 2008, found that it was in an “advanced state of decomposition, had been refrigerated and that his face had a mummified appearance”.

The State also alleges that the carpet in a bedroom in Povlsen’s home was replaced and the walls freshly painted.

Miller testified that he and three other employees could not fit the carpet on the day Maria Povlsen and Kimeze came to the store, but did so the next day.

They had followed Kimeze and Maria Povlsen to the house and were let into the house by Ssengendo.

The trio disputed Miller’s version.

Kimeze said he was at the carpet shop on January 14, 2008, but not the next day because he was in Gugulethu.

Maria Povlsen’s, version is that she never went to the carpet shop on January 14, 2008 but went alone the next day, and never pointed out the house to the workers.

Ssengendo said she and Kimeze had gone to the store on foot and denied that she opened the door when the workers arrived.

Miller stuck to his version.

The three, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and aggravated robbery, will remain in custody.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

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Cape Argus

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