Durban - The cellphone expert who conducted the data analysis on the cellphone number of the triple murder accused Colin Pillay on Thursday confirmed Pillay had sent two messages to Jane Govindasamy hours after she and her two daughters were murdered in their Phoenix home.
Rias Vythilingan, a law enforcement agency expert, under cross-examination by Pillay’s lawyer Amanda Hulley, told the court that two messages, one at about 11.43 pm and another at 12.23 am on September 20/21, were sent to Govindasamy from a cellphone number belonging to Pillay.
Pillay, who admitted at the start of the trial in the Durban High Court, that he was having an affair with Govindasamy, pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and theft of three cellphones and R1800.
The bodies of Govindasamy, 45, and daughters Denisha, 22, and Nikita, 16, were found in their Longcroft, Phoenix, home in September 2018.
According to the State’s evidence, Govindasamy and her daughters were already dead after 8pm. Govindasamy’s husband Sagren had earlier testified that he arrived home at about 10pm and did not get a response when he knocked. He spent the night at his mother’s house.
Yesterday, Vythilingan testified that although there were many cellphone towers in Phoenix, the cellphone would only pick up signal from the nearest tower. She said the data showed that from 1.58pm until before 8.12pm that evening, Pillay’s cellphone remained in the range of Longcroft Avenue, Phoenix, before between 7.11pm and 8.09pm Pillay moved from one sector to the other in the same vicinity, travelling from north to south of Longcroft Drive, past Neesa’s Boutique.
CCTV footage played in court this week showed Pillay walking past the boutique and wiping something that looked like a knife before throwing it into the bushes.
Evidence by Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammed Fazal Rajak on Wednesday was that CCTV footage evidence indicated Pillay was at a gambling spot not far from the murder scene at 9pm and had also been at Extreme Car Wash, a kilometre away, at 1am on the day of the incident.
Vythilingan had visited the murder scene and areas in Phoenix yesterday to observe the cellphone towers to see which would have likely picked up the signal the night of the murder .
“Evidence shows the person (Pillay) was moving within the range of the Phoenix area, specifically in the range of the crime scene until midnight. There was no activity until 9.35am the next morning, probably because the phone was switched off,”she said.
Hulley said Pillay would tell the court he was gambling at the park on the other end of the Phoenix Plaza, and on his way there walked through the complex where Govindasamy lived, past Rydalvale Drive.
Vythilingan could not say if Pillay’s claim that he was gambling at the park was true. The trial continues.