Both the murder weapons allegedly used in the murder of German schoolteacher Ina Halfter, and the blood-stained T-shirt of her boyfriend and murder accused which were sent for forensic tests have vanished.
This was the evidence yesterday before the Pretoria High Court, in the trial of Gerard Sippel, 49, who is facing a charge of murder.
The rope with which Halfter was strangled - having been wound several times around her neck - was also destroyed by the doctor who did the autopsy. Sippel pleaded not guilty, but has remained silent about his defence. The doctor who performed the autopsy this week testified that the investigating officer was not present during the post-mortem on April 17 last year, and that she had no instructions from him to keep the rope. She thus decided to dispose of it.
The doctor testified that the investigating officer had, after five months, come back to her asking where the rope was. The hammer which was apparently used to club Halfter to death in her Equestria flat was sent for forensic tests, but there was too little blood on it to make a finding as to whose it was.
A T-shirt worn by Sippel - apparently at about the time of Halfter's death, was also analysed and proved to have a bloodstain on the sleeve.
The T-shirt was found in Sippel's washing machine after he told the police, who found him in his car in Parys in the Free State, about it.
Sergeant Arthur Manyama, of the police forensic laboratory, testified that he mailed the T-shirt and the hammer back to the police working on the case.
The investigating officer, Sergeant Napoleon Bosielo, however, on Thursday testified that the parcel was sent to the Mamelodi East police station. But the officer who signed for it had no idea where it was.
Asked by the defence whether these two vital exhibits were not before court because they were missing, Bosielo said "it was not gone, he just does not know where it is".
Regarding the rope - a crucial murder exhibit which was destroyed - Bosielo said "it was true" that he only enquired about it after five months. But, he said, he only became the investigating officer in the case a day after the autopsy and he "had no knowledge a rope was used" in the murder.
He only became aware of the rope, he explained, after he saw it around Halfter's neck on the pictures taken of her body. The pictures, Bosielo said, only became available much later as "these things take time".
"Not one of the relevant exhibits is before court. Not one of the weapons used is here," advocate Marisa Barnard, acting for Sippel, exclaimed.
The investigating officer admitted that the exhibits were important, but added they were not available to hand in as evidence.
Meanwhile, a report made by Sippel regarding the Halfter incident, to a constable who found him in his vehicle next to a road in Parys, was not allowed as evidence before court as the report was made to a junior policeman and not an official.
The second policeman to whom Sippel divulged information of the same nature when found on the morning after the killing, was of a higher rank, but this evidence had to be removed from the court record on Thursday. This came after the officer admitted that he had not warned Sippel of his rights before the accused had made the report.
It did, however, lead to the policeman contacting the Silverton police station. He was then told about the discovery of Halfter's body. This in turn led to Sippel's arrest.
Sippel's version is that after he left work on the afternoon before the alleged murder and after he once again decided to commit suicide, he had dinner at a restaurant.
He left his half-eaten food and drove to Joburg. On his way there he decided to again speak to Halfter about her ending their relationship.
He went to her house and waited for her in the parking lot, but fell asleep in his car. "He woke up later, saw no benefit in waiting any longer, and left. He did not know whether she was at home or not. He just wanted to get away," Barnard said.
