Archaic technology is hampering police efforts to catch the Cleveland serial killer, reports Wiseman Khuzwayo
ARCHAIC computer systems have slowed down the identification of most of the victims of the Cleveland serial killer. And the lack of identification of the victims has hampered the search for the killer.
The police have so far managed to identify only two of the eight women strangled with their underwear before their bodies were dumped in Cleveland, Johannesburg. At least two of the victims were raped.
Forensic criminologist Dr Irma Labuschagne says for police to find the killer, it is important first to identify the victims. The police will look for similarities — in lifestyle, for example, or whether all the victims worked at night. Identifying the victims will help police discover who could have had contact with the victims, who could have watched them or stalked them.
A police representative this week blamed the delay in identification on poor computer systems and a lack of skills. Warrant Officer Andy Pieke said details of people reported missing were stored on computer at a police station, but this data could not be accessed by other stations because the computers were not linked.
Only after details had been recorded by each police station were they forwarded to the central police computer in Pretoria. Thereafter, any police station wanting information on a missing person could call it up from Pretoria.
So a person could be reported missing in Sunnyside, for example, and the body discovered in Cleveland — and there would be no quick way of linking the body with the details of the missing Sunnyside resident.
Worse still, police information is not always useful because not every police station correctly follows the procedure of recording the details of a missing person.
Pieke said: ”We are not as advanced as, say, the United States. We are not computer people. Even if we had an advanced system, we would still need specialists to operate it.”
Moreover, said Pieke, with the exception of children, missing people are not treated as a priority by a police force which is short on manpower.
He added that the police were often faced with a daunting and prolonged task when trying to identify a dead person: ”It takes a number of days. The mortuary has to take photographs of the person, and then fingerprints. These are sent to our Pretoria Missing Persons’ Bureau, which will then look into their records and ID documentation. But if the body is in an advanced state of decay, the photograph will obviously not help.
”If the fingerprints are successfully matched, then the bureau will supply the mortuary with the name and address of the deceased. The mortuary will contact the investigating officer with the information, or will send a letter to the address.”
Pieke said the job of the police was made more difficult by people failing to inform the Home Affairs Department of changes in their particulars, like their addresses.
Witwatersrand police spokesman Colonel Dave Bruce described some of the extra difficulties involved in dealing with serial killers: ”At first, you are investigating independent murder cases and you only come to the conclusion that you are dealing with a serial killer after a while. The first two Cleveland cases were discovered in July. It was only in September, after looking at all the circumstances surrounding the killings, that we realised we were dealing with a serial killer.
He added: ”The impression was created that we were late in reaching that conclusion when the case was handed over to the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit. But work had been going on for some time in Cleveland. And even now we cannot say for sure that this is a serial killer — not until we have arrested the perpetrator and had him examined.”
Labuschagne agreed: ”Even if you find three bodies at the same time and killed in the same way, that does not automatically mean you are dealing with a serial killer. It could be a gang killing. The police are now saying it is a serial killer because there has been a time lapse between each killing.”