Xolani Koyana
NEARLY two years after Jeffreys Bay businessman Claus Schroeder went missing, police have had a breakthrough in the case and are searching for the man believed to be behind his disappearance.
They have now launched a manhunt for German citizen Jens Leunberg, 34, who is on the run from police despite telling his lawyer he would be handing himself over to authorities. It is believed he is heading for Cape Town.
Police nabbed his former partner Kristina Adler, also a German citizen, last Monday.
Leunberg and Adler are suspected of killing Schroeder, 50, who designed mobile homes in Jeffreys Bay, at the Ovwanuk farm Thornhill near Port Elizabeth on August 14, 2009 after he confronted them about a business deal gone wrong.
Although Schroeder’s body has never been found, police believe he was killed.
At the time of his disappearance, police said he was seen getting into a black Golf, not owned by him, outside the farm where the couple lived.
A warrant for their arrest was issued last Monday. Hours later Adler was arrested at the Thornhill Farm. When police arrived at the farm, Leunberg was nowhere to be found because he was away on a business trip. The couple’s two children aged three and six years old were taken to a place of safety.
Adler made a brief appearance in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday and is to return to court on Thursday for a formal bail application.
Both Adler and Leunberg face a murder charge and two counts of fraud relating to providing false financial information to the Department of Home Affairs while applying for work permits. The second is for allegedly forging bank documents showing the money had been paid into Schroeder’s account for the sale of their farm.
According to police, Leunberg was last seen driving a red Toyota Tazz, registration BNB 217 EC. He is slender with dirty-yellow coloured hair pulled into a ponytail. He is 1.7m tall and speaks German and poor English, and is travelling with Khanyisa Mbata, believed to be his girlfriend.
Schroeder’s wife, Tanja Schroeder, said she and her husband met the couple, who were looking for accommodation, in mid-2007.
She said after Leunberg told numerous lies about why they could not pay rent and his failure to contribute to business ventures, they became suspicious of the couple and their intentions.
“My husband kept saying something was not right with them. He must have confronted them about that and we have not seen him since. I want to know what happened to my husband,” she said.