“He is not a viable
suspect.”
This is what a detective allegedly said after arresting convicted rapist, David van Boven, just FIVE days after the murders of UWC student Jesse Hess, 19, and her oupa Chris Lategan, 85.
Amid the fallout involving the 31-year-old suspect, who is also accused of raping a 16-year-old meisie in Hanover Park this week, Lategan’s family say they were being kept in the dark about the investigation.
Van Boven, who was out on parole at the time of the crimes, was arrested for rape and robbery just before 1pm on Wednesday, after police received a tip-off on his whereabouts from residents of Struisbaai.
Van Boven is a relative of Jesse’s, and the Hess family said it was a shocking moment when they heard her alleged killer had been caught, reports the Cape Times.
“We are also shocked because the suspect is my (relative). Jesse grew up in front of him, they would meet at all the special occasions and family celebrations,” Sandy Hess said.
KILLED: Jesse Hess
Speaking for the first time, a 32-year-old relative of Oupa Chris’, who asked not to be named, says it was they, and not Sandy, who discovered the bodies in the flat as was previously reported.
She says they called the Hess family and despite breaking the door of the Parow flat and
being first on the scene, cops didn’t bother taking statements from her or other relatives.
The woman says on 30 August, she received a call from a relative after 5pm asking her if “Pappa was OK?” as his cellphone was off.
“She was knocking and ringing the bell, but nobody was answering,” says the woman.
“Then a neighbour sent a message to say he was lying on the bathroom floor and we became worried because he was ageing and we didn’t know if he fell or something, and nobody knew where Jesse was.”
She says they rushed over and broke a glass pane on the door and turned the latch.
“You could see the TV was taken, but the lounge looked normal except for one couch (that was moved).
“My cousin walked in and saw Jesse’s half-naked body and she started screaming.
“She was lying behind the bed and the perpetrator had stuffed bedding under a blanket, making it look like someone was sleeping on the bed.
“We found oupa Chris on the bathroom floor and his hands were tied. We had no idea he was strangled as they only told us at the mortuary.”
MURDERED: Oupa Chris Lategan's body found on bathroom floor in Parow home. Picture supplied
She says claims that Van Boven only became a suspect in
the double murder after he had “slipped up” and raped a girl in Hanover Park this week are false as police had taken him in for questioning five days after Jesse and their oupa was killed.
“The colonel heading up the case phoned us to ask if we had family in Hanover Park and we said no,” the woman says.
“Then they told us they questioned this David, but that he was not a viable suspect. That was the first time we heard about this David.”
RE-ARRESTED: David van Boven. Picture supplied
In a text message sent to the woman on 5 September, the investigating officer says: “We have eliminated David as a suspect and released him.”
She says on Tuesday morning, the officer called her again and said David had “slipped up” and was on the run and they were going to arrest him.
She says that after seeing Van Boven’s picture in the media, she remembered she’d seen him outside the flat shortly after the bodies were discovered.
Van Boven will appear on rape and robbery charges at the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court today.