/ 24 November 1999

GRISLY MURDER TRIAL STARTS IN NAMIBIA

THE trial of Thomas Florin, a German citizen accused of the grisly murder of his wife, is due to start in the Nambian coastal town of Swakopmund on Wednesday. Florin, a one-time chef, stands accused of bludgeoning his wife, Monika to death at their Swakopmund home last year. He then allegedly dismembered her body by sawing off her limbs, removing her organs and burning or cooking her remains. A friend of Monika Florin who was suspicious about her sudden disappearance found the skeletal remains of the young mother of two small children in a plastic bowl above the ceiling of the couple’s deserted home. Florin will be represented by a South African lawyer, Francis Murray, of the Cape Town bar.