/ 4 May 1999

POLICE DIG AGAIN IN GERT VAN ROOYEN CASE

POLICE on the weekend reopened investigations into the disappearance of five young girls in the late 1980s thought to be linked to paedophile Gert van Rooyen. Four child protection unit detectives arrived in Stanger on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast from Pretoria on Sunday to investigate claims by a clairvoyant that Van Rooyen may have buried his suspected five young victims under a house in Blythdale beach. Van Rooyen, who shot himself when police were closing in on him, has been linked to the deaths of Joan Horn (12), of Pretoria West, Annemarie Wapenaa (12), Odette Boucher (11), Yolande Wessels (12) — all from Kempton Park — and Fiona Harvey (12), of Pietermaritzburg.