Cape Town - Blood spatters found in a cupboard in the garage at Renaldo van Rooyen’s home, one of the men accused of killing Kuilsriver mother Zara Hector, matched her DNA.
Warrant Officer Blanche Stubbs, a forensics analyst and reporting officer, yesterday confirmed to the Western Cape High Court that swabs taken in the garage matched the DNA results from tissue extracted from Hector’s body.
Stubbs said the blood splatters were tested on items in the garage.
Hector was bludgeoned to death on March 15, 2016. Her body was found 10 days later wrapped in canvas and dumped on a farm in Groot Drakenstein. Her boyfriend’s BMW Z3, that she had been driving, was found abandoned in Observatory.
Van Rooyen, 34, and Tawfeeq Ebrahim , 26, are accused of her murder.
Peter Burgers, Van Rooyen’s lawyer, questioned whether there could have been room for mistakes, while the tests were conducted.
He asked the forensics analyst about the cleanliness of the lab.
“Is the lab kept sterile to prevent self-contamination?” Burgers asked. Stubbs reassured the court of the standard procedures and the protective clothing worn.
She said there were no contamination reports on these samples.
The crime scene investigator Themba Ntobela testified that blood traces were found on the head of a black hammer inside a cupboard in the garage as well as on the hi-fi that was on the floor.