After nearly two decades, former Idols winner Karin Kortje has finally broken her silence about the murder of guest house owner, Renate Kellerman, at the hands of her ex-boyfriend Cheslin Williams.
Karin took to TikTok over the weekend to give a blow by blow account of how she and Jabu Mlotshwa, her manager, had stumbled upon Kellerman’s body, and how she herself had piemped Williams to cops.
Karin rose to fame in 2005 and became renowned as the apple picker from Grabouw who had won Idols SA.
But just a year later, her life took a dramatic turn when Williams was arrested for rape and murder.
The couple and Jabu stayed at Kellerman's Le Petit Chateau for a few days while Karin was filming an advertisement.
Karin and Jabu found Kellerman's half-naked body in the room where she and Williams stayed.
Williams and several of Kellerman's valuables and her bakkie were missing.
Kellerman's top was pulled over her head and she had been stabbed several times in her neck and chest.
In 2009, Williams was sentenced to life in prison for murder, five years for theft and eight years for attempted rape. He died in prison of leukaemia in May 2015.
On TikTok, an emotional Karin let her tears flow freely as she recalled the harrowing day.
The mother of four said just the night before, a concerned Jabu had advised her to leave Cheslin as he was ruining her fledging career.
“By that time Jabu knew what type of menace Cheslin became,” Karin explained.
She said upon returning from the shoot that night, she found it odd that Kellerman’s bakkie was not in the driveway, and the guest entrance was unlocked.
She also noticed that the lights were off in certain parts of the house and Kellerman’s handbag was found tipped out on the kitchen floor, while dirty dishes stood everywhere.
She said she went to go look for Kellerman in her room, but only found her son fast asleep.
Nevertheless, Jabu advised that they should go to their rooms and sleep. But Karin said when she got to her and Cheslin’s room, the door was unlocked.
“I pushed open the door, and I saw her laying on the floor, and I could just stare.”
She says at some point, Jabu peered into her room and started screaming.
“I stood there, thinking, what am I looking at? Jabu screams, come Karin come!
“I stepped further into the room, and looked around and the first thing I noticed is that Cheslin’s bags are gone, his suitcase was gone, and then I knew, he had been there, and I realised that he was the cause of everything playing out in front of me.”
@karin_kortje Part 121 #vredeinmyhart #waarheidmaakvry #fyp #itwasnteasy #butitwasworthit #verlossing #healing #Godisinit #NUWEDAG ♬ original sound - Karin Kortje
She said they left the house in a frenzy, but she went back to fetch Kellerman’s young son.
She decided to drive to “Bobby in Eerste River” as she didn’t know where the police station was in Durbanville.
But they came upon a road block in Durban Street and she that’s when she broke down and called over a police officer.
“I said to him, you have to go back to that house, there’s a woman, she’s dead.”
She said back at the guest house, Jabu’s boyfriend spoke to her over the phone, and told her she had to make a decision - to choose Cheslin, or herself and her child.
“I then told Jabu to call over the detective, because I wanted to tell them it’s him (Cheslin). I told the female detective that I suspected who the killer was, that we weren’t the only people at the guesthouse, he was also there and I saw his bags were missing, which means he had to have been there in this time (of Kellerman’s murder).
@karin_kortje Part 124 #fyp #Godisinit #itwasnteasy #butitwasworthit #verlossing #healing #waarheidmaakvry #vredeinmyhart ♬ original sound - Karin Kortje
“I told her my room was locked and that Renate must have unlocked the door for him as I had the keys.”
She said Williams’ had been out with his father and another man that day, and his father must have dropped him at the house.
Karin said: “I made a choice that morning that I had enough, I regretted that it had to end so dramatically, I will always feel guilty because of that, but I chose my child above the man that I loved, it was the best decision I made. I could help to bring justice for the victim, because she didn't deserve it.”
In a statement to the police soon after his arrest in July 2006, Williams said his ex-convict father, Basil, and a friend, Deon Sampies, had arrived at the guest house while Karin was working, to see what they could steal. He said he let the men in without Kellerman's knowledge, and kept her distracted while his father and Sampies raided the rooms.
@karin_kortje Part126 #fyp #Godisinit #blessedSunday #waarheidmaakvry #vredeinmyhart #verlossing #healing #itwasnteasy #butitwasworthit ♬ original sound - Karin Kortje
He said he asked Kellerman at midnight to unlock his room door, as Karin had the key. He said he and Kellerman kissed, but he told her she was old and he had a girlfriend. He said he told Kellerman to go to bed.
While they were standing in the doorway, his father asked Kellerman where the safe was. He said his father stabbed Kellerman in the neck, and he fled in Kellerman's car, leaving his father and Sampie behind.
However in a statement handed in on March 13, 2009, Williams confessed to stabbing Kellerman himself, out of rage, when she came on too strong.
Daily Voice