Private eye takes two days where cops bungle for years
SOMETIMES desperate families turn to private investigators to help them solve the murders of their loved ones once they realise police are unable to crack it.
East London investigator Christian Botha has earned a reputation as a supersleuth who can solve cold cases quickly.
“With any case you have to start with the police docket. It’s full of clues and all you have to do is analyse it,” he said.
In 2004, Botha was hired to solve the eight-year mystery of Alec Steenkamp’s disappearance. He was hired by Steenkamp’s daughter, Samantha, who refused to accept that her father could not be traced.
The 43-year-old disappeared on September 17 1996.
Botha said Steenkamp vanished after he had gone to collect money from a certain Kenneth Downey, at the time living at 75 Putney Road in Brixton, Johannesburg.
When he had failed to return home the following day, his wife, Andrea, registered a missing person case with the police.
Botha said: “The police questioned Downey, who claimed that he gave Steenkamp the money, and that Botha then left.” That was seemingly the end of it.
But two weeks after Steenkamp’s disappearance, his car was found in the parking lot of the Milpark Holiday Inn, a few kilometres from Brixton. His briefcase and ID were in the car.
Although the case subsequently went cold, his daughter persisted.
Botha said: “The docket then went missing and the police were not very helpful. They even told her that her dad had most probably taken the money and run away with another woman.”
Botha took the case and ar- GRUESOME DISCOVERY: Crime scene investigators uncovered a shallow grave at a house in Brixton in 2004. They found the remains of Alec Steenkamp, eight years after his family reported him missing. The case was solved by private investigator Christian Botha rived in Johannesburg in early October 2004 to begin his investigation.
On the first day, Botha started making inquiries with police.
He discovered that nothing had been done by the police other than to question Downey.
Later that day, he went to the house in Brixton — the last place Steenkamp was known to have gone.
“I found that it was a semidetached house and that it was standing empty. I spoke to the neighbour, who said the previous owner, a Mrs Pullen, had died.
“He also confirmed that Mrs Pullen had a son named Kenneth Downey.”
The neighbour allowed Botha access to the property where Downey lived at the time of Steenkamp’s disappearance.
With basic detective work around the house, Botha noticed a piece of the carpet in the lounge had been cut and removed. This raised his suspi- cions.
“I then proceeded to the backyard to inspect and found that the cement blocks had sunk in some spots.
“This suggested to me that the paving was laid without letting the ground settle below.”
Botha also spoke to another neighbour, who had been friends with Downey’s mother.
After some persuasion, the neighbour, Margaret Schoeman, a pensioner, told him that a domestic worker had confided in her.
The woman told Schoeman that Steenkamp had been murdered in that house and that she had been made to dispose of the bloodied clothing. Furthermore, Schoeman said she had also wit- IN COLD BLOOD: This hammer was used to kill Alec Steenkamp. Kenneth Downey was sentenced to life behind bars for the murder PERSONAL ITEMS: This phone and watch were found in a shallow grave with the remains of Alec Steenkamp
Police never questioned neighbours or the domestic worker
nessed Downey digging a hole in the backyard.
Police investigating Steenkamp’s disappearance never questioned neighbours or the domestic worker.
Botha said this immediately prompted him to speak to the head of detectives at Brixton police station, who applied for a search warrant.
The next morning, police dogs and forensic experts came to do excavations.
They discovered Steenkamp’s remains and the murder weapon, a hammer, buried in the yard.
It had taken Botha just 48 hours to solve the murder.
By then, Downey was on the run. Botha later traced him to Maputo, Mozambique, where he was arrested.
Downey was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for Steenkamp’s murder.
Botha has since published a book, The Shallow Grave, detailing his work on this case.