Cape Town - Two sisters, one murdered and another missing for 20 years, is a cold case private investigator Leon Rossouw, of Consulting Detectives, won’t let go of until he unearths the truth.
A month ago, Rossouw took to social media in the hopes that modern technology could spread his investigation nationally, even to the Western Cape, and shed some light on what happened between October 14, 2001 to 2002, in Rustenburg.
Rossouw, through his company’s Facebook page, launched a social media investigation, while carrying out his normal routine as a private eye for more than four decades, studying human behaviour and patterns.
Rossouw is currently investigating 11 cases across the country, some in Cape Town, such as Raymonde Boltman, who disappeared in Lentegeur, Mitchells Plain, in 2016, and Le-Jeandre de Bruyn, from Wynberg, who vanished in 2014.
De Bruyn’s mother’s ex-partner James Jonas was arrested in Mossel Bay, in October 2020, six years after her disappearance.
To date, the teen has not yet been found.
Jonas had been living with the family at the time.
During an interview with Weekend Argus, Rossouw shared some of the latest information on the case of Edna Elaine Piecey and her sister Blanche, details which cannot be shared publicly and which may affect the route of the investigation.
Weekend Argus also approached Edna and Blanche’s mother, Janine Lottering, for comment, but she was hesitant, stating she did not trust the media.
“I always get misquoted, I will need to think about this,” she said.
Edna was just 16 when she disappeared on a Sunday, in October 2001.
She had returned from a school camping trip on Sunday afternoon and had left her school bag with her friend, who lived two streets away from their home.
She had told her stepfather Johnny Lottering that she needed to collect her school bag from her friend in Oos-Einde, which was just a few blocks away, but she never returned home.
“That Monday, after her disappearance, the school bag was returned to Edna’s mother, which means she never made it to her friend’s home,” said Rossouw.
Rossouw believes the critical clues lie in the close relationship with her sister Blanche and friends, and the distance she had walked in a bid to get her school bag.
What had happened on that day? who did Edna meet along the way? These are questions Rossouw has asked himself during his widespread investigation.
Rossouw is now busy piecing together vital information that he hopes will unlock the truth.
He believes the two cases are connected.
“The two sisters have the same perpetrator, the person who killed Blanche is behind Edna’s disappearance,” he said.
Then, eight months later, tragedy struck the family yet again.
Blanche, 15, had been babysitting a family friend’s children, and disappeared shortly after leaving the house.
Five weeks later, her body was discovered, just 3km from her house, and she had been strangled to death and was basically naked.
He told Weekend Argus DNA had twice ruled out the stepfather as a suspect and he was sure the evidence was correct.
“We retested the DNA which had been found on Blanche and there was no match, it was also done that time of the murder,” he said.
But why did Rossouw use social media and Facebook?
“There are 2.4 billion active Facebook users every month, and so there are many missing persons and unsolved cases that could be solved with all these users on social media! To the living we owe respect, but to the missing we owe the truth
“Consulting Detectives are devoted to assisting the SAPS with these cold cases and bringing these families closure.
“It is our mission to give the nameless back their names and return the missing to their families – evidence speaks when victims can’t,” said Rossouw.
As a seasoned detective, Rossouw said everyone is a suspect.
“I am bringing something to them that most of them have suppressed deep down inside, and they may feel very differently about the events of the past. This is especially true if they feel guilty about something or are angry at another party.
“Sometimes, it is the prime suspect's door I am knocking on, whether I know it or not. Usually, I treat everyone as a suspect in a cold case because the simple fact is that I don't know who is involved in a person's disappearance or who committed the crime.
“I don't let the people I'm interviewing know that I consider them suspects. I treat them like they were friends or witnesses, and I tell them I'm just gathering information. But I watch them, I observe them keenly. I don't make any conclusions from my observations but I do note them.
“Some people are nervous when you knock on their doors whether they have something to hide or not.
“Some people will fidget with their hair or tap their foot because it is what they do, not because they are hiding information on a 20-year-old cold case,” he added.
If you have any information about the case, please contact or WhatsApp 063 682 5758, or send an email to [email protected]
Weekend Argus