The Charmaine Mare Murder Trial

Cape Town - The day before Charmaine Mare, 16, was brutally murdered and her body chopped up and burnt, she sent an SMS to her family begging them for help.

Mare was staying with a friend and the friend’s mother in Cape Town but both then left on a cruise vacation and Mare was alone in the house with the friend’s mother’s boyfriend, it was earlier reported.

Die Burger reported that Mare sent an SMS to her mother saying a man wanted to force her to have sex with him.

"Her mother said she should lock herself in her room where she was sleeping,” said family friend Zirk Jansen.

It was the last time the family heard from the girl, who had come to Cape Town from Kriel to try and make a better life for herself.

Mare’s badly-burnt chest was found in a field in Kraaifontein and could be identified only by a tongue ring and a neck chain. Her arms were found in the garage of the house where she staying and her legs were found in an abandoned building in Somerset West.

Johan de Jager, 48, was arrested for the murder and will appear in court soon.

The girl’s emotional mother said the family had been devastated by her death.

"Her friend said to her to come to the Cape with her. There they wanted to try to get her into a school. If they couldn’t do that, they would help her find a job. Now my child is dead,” said a distraught Katrina Mare, 53.

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Korn1 said:

Why would she just say lock yourself in the room? I would freak out if my daughter told me that!

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Korn1 said:

Why would she just say lock yourself in the room? I would freak out if my daughter told me that!

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TJ99 said:

Because they're very, very far away and couldn't do anything directly and it was all she could do at the moment?

Edit: Also, OP is mis-quoting. The article says they found her torso, not her chest only which makes a lot more sense since how can someone have a tongue-ring in their chest?

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Fudzy said:

Assuming the family was dirt poor, what other advice would you give your child that is probably co-habiting a place? How far is Kriel from Cape Town?

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sparticus said:

I get what you saying but as a parent my response would have had a little more urgency in it. I would sell my soul to get to CT asap if I was her.

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TJ99 said:

It's well over 1000km as the crow flies. (Mpumalanga) Even if you had a supersonic jet plane in your backyard, all fueled up and ready to scramble and the necessary few km of runway to take off and land it, (that means at both ends), you still couldn't get over there in time. She'd still have to reach temporary safety before the police/friend/family member/you in your SR-71 Blackbird can arrive.

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sparticus said:

Guy I agree , pick up a fone and call a friend , a relative , the local cops , the local church , anyone while you rush down to make sure everything is okay. In the first place how can the friends mom just leave her like that alone ? Then also , as a parent no matter how difficult I would have expected the mom to travel with her to check that everything is 100% or send a friend that I trust. Maybe I am overprotective , maybe I am not. Does not matter. I would rather be safe than sorry.

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sparticus said:

Guy I agree , pick up a fone and call a friend , a relative , the local cops , the local church , anyone while you rush down to make sure everything is okay. In the first place how can the friends mom just leave her like that alone ? Then also , as a parent no matter how difficult I would have expected the mom to travel with her to check that everything is 100% or send a friend that I trust. Maybe I am overprotective , maybe I am not. Does not matter. I would rather be safe than sorry.

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TJ99 said:

Maybe she did go there, maybe she was on her way when the body was found. You (and others) have asked why the mother didn't go over there herself to help the child while it's perfectly obvious that she couldn't. It's like someone phoning you from another country telling you they're in trouble. First you'd tell them to get to safety and then make a plan. You can't expect a mother to just instantly appear across the country to save her child that was being attacked. Of course she should go and check but by that time it would have been far too late.

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Cape Town - Terrified Charmaine Mare spent her last days alive begging people to save her from the man accused of killing and dismembering her.

The grim details of how the 16-year-old was harassed, attacked and mutilated emerged in the Blue Downs Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

Mechanic and dad-of-two Johannes de Jager appeared in court for Charmaine’s murder and his bail hearing.

De Jager sat with his jaw clenched as investigating officer Daniel Peter Sampson revealed how they caught the man dubbed the “Butcher of Kraaifontein”.

“On January 14, Kraaifontein SAPS got a call reporting the body of a woman whose legs and arms were missing in Darwin Street near the shooting range,” Sampson told the court. “The body had been burnt.”

He said the day before he had seen a flyer for a missing girl at a nearby BP petrol station. “It occurred to me that the body that was found could be of the girl I saw the previous day,” he said.

Sampson said on the Tuesday while at the morgue he noticed the corpse had a tongue ring.

He then returned to the BP garage and found the flyer and called the contact number on it.

“I spoke to a woman and explained that they should come into the [police] station,” he said.

“The accused before the court arrived with a neighbour Sonia, his girlfriend Carol, the girlfriend’s daughter Kristen and the accused’s son Nick.”

Sampson asked the group who was last seen with the deceased and Kristen said it was “Oom Johan” (De Jager).

Carol, Nick and Kristen had been on a boat trip at the Waterfront leaving Charmaine and De Jager alone at home from Monday, January 7.

Sampson said De Jager told him he had last seen Charmaine when she left for the shops and had not returned.

The officer said after further questioning and finding Charmaine’s cellphone in De Jager’s jacket pocket, he arrested him.

“He said he did not mean to kill her,” said Sampson.

The officer then told the court how they believe Charmaine had died.

He told the court De Jager and Charmaine had a struggle in the bathroom.

“She fell in the bathroom and hit her head. He dragged her into the passage, through the kitchen and braai area, where he put her body in a drain outside that is about a metre deep,” Sampson explained.

Later he allegedly tried to remove the body but because it was stiff he allegedly cut off her arms and legs to get her out.

Charmaine’s torso was dumped and set alight in a field in Windsor Park. Her arms were found close to his bakkie at the garage of the house and her legs on the N2 near Firgrove.

“We recovered more DNA from the drain and are still waiting on the results,” he added.

Police also recovered DNA samples in the boot of the accused’s Ford Mustang and traces of blood in the house.

A saw and bolt cutter were handed in as evidence as tools used to dismember Charmaine.

State Prosecutor Juan Crous asked Sampson how Charmaine’s arms and legs were recovered.

“While in custody I made him aware of his rights again and he said he understood and was willing to tell me where to find them,” Sampson explained.

“He said they [arms] were on the floor under a car. They were found wrapped in newspapers in one of the double garages [at his Kraaifontein house].

“When I asked about the legs he said he threw them away and the day after his court appearance he showed us to a house in Firgrove along the N2.”

But the most chilling evidence came from the victim’s cellphone.

Sampson says they recovered data from Charmaine’s cellphone and found BBM messages from the teen to Kristen claiming De Jager was sexually harassing her.

“She messaged Kristen on January 11 and said Oom Johan was lying on the bed with her and does not want to leave her alone,” Sampson said.

“And that he wanted to have sex with her.

“Kristen then showed the message to her mother who then tried to get in touch with the accused but could not get through.

“The deceased also contacted another woman on Facebook and told her the accused wanted to have sex with her.”

When asked if the deceased went out seeking help Sampson said she went to an estate agent identified in court only as Adrian and asked for money to escape.

“She told him about the sexual advances and asked for money to get away but she never got it,” said Sampson.

Sampson said the State was opposing bail because De Jager was a danger to society. De Jager’s lawyer, Wildre Fourie, is due to cross-examine Sampson on Thursday.

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