/ 26 October 2022

Victim’s DNA speaks beyond the grave: Court finds accused guilty of Tazné van Wyk murder

Family And Friends Bid Farewell To Tazne Van Wyk
Eight-year-old Tazne Van Wyk who was found dead in a drainpipe outside the town of Worcester. (Jaco Marais)

Moyhdian Pangkaeker has been convicted for the kidnapping, rape and murder of eight-year-old Tazné van Wyk in 2020. The Western Cape high court found Pangkaeker guilty on 21 of 25 remaining charges on Wednesday.

“He knew Tazné was dead, he knew that because he was the killer,” Judge Alan Maher ruled on Wednesday. “The only person who could have killed Tazné was the accused. He lured her away from her home and kidnapped her.”

Maher read out loud the brutal and violent manner in which Tazné was raped and said the only reason the accused kidnapped the eight year old was for “sexual gratification” as seen in his pattern of targeting young girls. 

“In this case similarities are striking,” said Maher, noting that the accused’s victims were all young girls and each was sexually assaulted.

“The accused kidnapped, murdered and raped Tazné van Wyk and he desecrated her corpse,” the court found based on circumstantial evidence.

DNA evidence found under Tazné’s nails links Pangkaeker to the crimes “and it is probable that Tazné spoke beyond the grave by bravely fighting for her life”. 

On Wednesday, the 56-year-old was convicted on charges including common assault, indecent assault, two of sexual assault, nine of rape, murder, two of kidnapping, child exploitation, incest, violating a corpse and absconding parole. 

In its closing arguments in September, the state through advocate Lenro Badenhorst, withdrew two charges, that of sexual grooming and rape, against the accused after evidence did not support a conviction. 

Pangkaeker pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Over a period of three days Maher recounted witness testimonies and evidence that were presented to court since the start of the murder trial in May

Of the more than 80 state witnesses, 37 testified in court, of which some were conducted in camera.

Tazné’s parents, Carmen van Wyk and Terrence Manuel, last saw their eight-year-old daughter on 7 February 2020.  

During his testimony in court earlier this year, Manuel recalled the last time he saw Tazné. 

She was wearing a red, white and green striped jumpsuit when she was on her way to the tuckshop across from their home in Clarke Estate, in Elsies River, a suburb in Cape Town.

Tazné was found two weeks later in the same jumpsuit in a stormwater pipe outside Worcester. 

Maher pointed out the accused placed himself at the crime scene when he showed police where Tazné’s body was.

In a sting operation arranged by police and the accused’s former wife, Pangkaeker was persuaded to go to Cradock with the promise of R8000 and of meeting his former wife in a hotel. 

Pangkaeker was arrested on 17 February 2020 in Cradock in the Eastern Cape two weeks after the disappearance of Tazné.

In Wednesday’s judgment, Maher said the state’s circumstantial evidence was overwhelming while the accused’s testimonies and evidence were unreliable. 

During his evidence in chief, Pangkaeker testified that he and Tazné had ended up together in a taxi with four foreigners — who he alleged were drug dealers — who kidnapped them in Ravensmead, dropped them in Worcester, only to kidnap them again after midnight near Hexpark, a suburb in Worcester. It is the same group of people, one woman and three men, that Pangkaeker said killed the young girl.

Outside court, Tazné’s parents told the media that the judgment won’t bring back their daughter. 

“I do not have much to say. It wasn’t an easy time. We just want justice to prevail,” added Van Wyk. 

“It is difficult, I’m just glad that the man is out of the community so that the same does not happen to other children,” said Manuel

The majority of Pangkaeker’s offences were committed after he was released on parole in 2016. 

Pangkaeker will be sentenced on 16 January next year, after which he can indicate whether he wants to apply for leave to appeal