Nothing but an empty hole . . .
AS police this week abandoned yet another search for the remains of victims of paedophile Gert van Rooyen in Durban, one of the last living links to the suspected serial killer told of her heartbreak for the families of the missing girls.
Amor van der Westhuyzen, daughter of Van Rooyen’s lover and co-conspirator Joey Haarhoff, said every fruitless search for the girls left her “racked with guilt”.
The pair are believed to have murdered at least six young girls — Tracy-Lee Scott-Crossley, 14; Fiona Harvey, 12; Joan Horn, 12; Odette Boucher, 11; Anne-Marie Wapenaar, 12; and Yolanda Wessels, 13 — between 1988 and 1989. Their bodies have never been found.
On Wednesday, the enormous steel arms of earthmovers shifted the sand above a storm drain on Blythedale beach, guided by a psychic.
As they painstakingly moved earth from a specific section of pipe, a police search dog trained to detect human remains scratched through the sand, in vain.
“I feel so bad for the families of those poor girls. It breaks my heart.
“If that had happened to one of my children, I would die,” said Van der Westhuyzen.
“They keep hoping and hoping that something will happen and that their children will come home.”
She said that as the decades passed, every new newspaper report about the misdeeds of her mother had “damaged” her.
“When I used to see photos of my mother with the stories of what she did, it was very upsetting.”
“It used to do such damage to me . . . all these years I felt so guilty about what she did to the children because I have children of my own,” she said.
She said that as she had come to terms with her mother’s crimes, she was hopeful that the families of the missing girls would get closure.
“I think they must just be praying for a resolution. Someday something will come out and this case will be solved.”
Joan Seyffert, who managed to escape the clutches of the couple after she was abducted in Pretoria when she was 16, said she had chosen to remain silent because of the hurt still felt by the affected families.
“I decided to not talk about this to the press a few years ago as it only hurts the parents of the girls and sets them back to those days.
“They hurt . . . I can’t imagine what these stories must do to them,” she said.
The couple kidnapped Seyffert on January 11 1990 after they stopped her on the side of the road and offered her a lift.
Her escape set in motion a series of events that eventually led to Van Rooyen shooting Haarhoff before turning the gun on himself as police closed in on them.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mike van Aardt, a seasoned detective credited with putting serial killers behind bars, oversaw this week’s dig.
The docket has never been closed and remains under investigation by the career cop.
He said the scope of the investigation was so broad because of the length of time it spanned.
“The Van Rooyen case is a difficult one as we are searching for missing people as opposed to investigating a case with the aim of gathering evidence for court purposes.
“Cold cases are extremely difficult to solve because, as more time lapses after a crime is committed, the chance for success is minimised,” he said.
They keep hoping and hoping that something will happen