It is now August 29th 2023. An inquest should normally be held within 6 months after an unnatural death. If I remember correctly, a SAPS detective told me the very longest is 2 years. Michael Volkwyn was murdered in 2015, 8 years ago. There has not been an inquest. Barbara is still pursuing the matter, hoping that an inquest will still take place.
In April 2016 I had a top forensic expert, Cobus Steyl, come and investigate at Michael’s house. He was supposed to write and submit a report – that was part of the deal. He said he needed a blood spatter report and crime scene photos before he could submit a report (which he had not told me before I contracted him to investigate). He said he had a good idea what had occurred, but needed the blood spatter report and crime scene photos because if he made a statement in court, SAPS may be able to then claim, based upon crime scene photos or a blood spatter report that they use in court, that his conclusion was incorrect. SAPS informed me that there was no blood spatter report.
Cobus was later informed by me that SAPS did have crime scene photos, but there was no blood spatter report (according to SAPS). Cobus asked to have a telephonic meeting with me. However, he later went silent.
He refused to provide anything in writing. He furthermore, refused to reply to my Whatsapp messages, including the one where I stated he ought to refund me part of the approx R20 000 fee I paid him if he was not prepared to provide anything in writing.
I am used to people going silent, or never replying or responding when initially approached. The IPID contact person refused to reply, when I pointed out incorrect findings in the IPID report. The person who sold Michael CCTV cameras refused to reply. A person at UCT who works with CCTV security systems refused to reply when I asked if he could translate the CCTV video files to e.g. a more common standard like MP4.
Part of the work Cobus did at the house, was to collect blood samples – blood identified during photographing with Bluestar. Lab tests came to about R9000. The test results came back negative – ie cannot poitively match blood samples from walls and a shelf as being Michael’s blood. That was around May 2016. I basically stopped doing or funding further investigations myself – I felt that if I could not prove that blood on walls, shelves and other items was Michaels, then I could not provide that he was assaulted and then murdered in the house. Barbara continued investigating and contacting the authorities and having meetings with various state officials from her side.
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