/ 29 November 2007

Lotz murder: Accused found not guilty

The Cape High Court on Thursday found former Old Mutual actuary Fred van der Vyver not guilty of the murder of his girlfriend, Inge Lotz.

The acquittal brought to an end a dramatic trial that had lasted nine months, which Judge Deon van Zyl described as ”long and emotion-packed”.

Two years ago, Lotz was found beaten and stabbed to death in her Stellenbosch apartment.

Van Zyl said in his three-hour judgement that the case had at times ”tried the patience of all the role players to extremes”.

He said prosecutors Christenus van der Vijver and Careen Teunissen had based their case entirely on circumstantial evidence.

Van Zyl said there may be suspicion that Van der Vyver murdered Lotz, but no court could convict on suspicion alone.

Nor had there been any motive for Van der Vyver to have killed the woman he had planned to marry.

The judge said love letters that formed part of the record indicated that Van der Vyver and Lotz had had a strong love for each other, and had planned to get engaged at the end of 2005.

He said there was evidence that the couple had had a serious quarrel the night before Lotz died, but only hours later Lotz had written Van der Vyver a lengthy love letter, which could leave no doubt that she still loved him and wanted to be his wife.

The judge said Van der Vyver may have left Lotz’s home angry after their argument — and may have wanted to end their relationship due to the argument — but he was not so angry as to want to murder her.

He said: ”The love letter that Lotz wrote him and the SMS and voice messages he sent her indicate that the upset of the night before was forgotten.

”It is unthinkable that the upset would have caused Van der Vyver to want to murder his wife-to-be.

”Within only a few hours of the argument, both had calmed down.”

Van Zyl said: ”When a pretty young girl’s life ends like this, it is understandable that the community demands justice.”

He said the state had been unable to refute Van der Vyver’s alibi — that he had been at his workplace at the time of the murder — and it therefore had to be accepted as reasonably, possibly true.

Van der Vyver was therefore entitled to an acquittal, he said. — Sapa