Karel Johannes Fourie

Karel Johannes Fourie (1935 - 2006)

Brief overview:

Karel (70), from Melmoth, was shot dead at his home and robbed of his car on 2 April 2006 after a church service.

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Farm/Smallholding
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
• Items Stolen
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
  • Two suspects, respectively 28 and 26 years old, were arrested in Melmoth on 14 November 2006 after an unlicensed firearm was found in their possession.
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction

Additional Biographical Information:

• Official cause of death : Unnatural cause

In the town where he grew up as a runaway, he was a familiar face: the beggar who always asked for money or tried to work as a car guard.
He could not find work. At night he slept in a quiet alley under newspapers.
Then he and two friends decided they had had enough of begging. And they start taking: money, cell phones . . . and lives.
What followed was one of the most murderous acts of violence in the history of the area, says Supt. Anton Booysen, KwaZulu-Natal's provincial coordinator of investigations into psychologically motivated crimes. He is now investigating the case, which already involves almost twenty files.
So far, this includes ten murders, several attempted murders and numerous other armed robberies and assaults - all in just eight months.
"They didn't feel anything for anyone. What they wanted, they took, and you were lucky if you got away with it," says Booysen.
He says two suspects, respectively 28 and 26 years old, were arrested in Melmoth on 14 November last year after an unlicensed firearm was found in their possession.
At that stage they were only connected with the murder of Mr. Karel Fourie (70), who was shot dead at his home and robbed of his car on 2 April 2006 after a church service.
They are still in custody and their accomplice still on the run.
But then Mrs. Theresa Botha (34), a clerk at the police's analysis center in Vryheid, points out that there is a pattern.
There was a string of similar crimes - many of them committed by three men, often armed with a 9 mm pistol and a number of victims who were shot and left for dead along the roads of Northern Natal. All in just eight months.
She called Booysen.
Coincidentally, Booysen received a letter from Mrs. Debbie Symington, a public prosecutor in Vryheid, found. She also began to suspect that the spate of murders in the area were connected.
In the past week, Booysen went to the area with a specialist investigation team to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.
The beggar gang is now linked to up to twenty robberies in and around Vryheid. Ten people were killed in these attacks.
All the victims were men. Everyone had a job. Most of them were either hitchhikers or people stopping along the road.
Booysen says it is still unknown how many cases the three men are actually involved in.
"The problem is that different crimes have been committed and reported in different towns. So far they have been linked to twenty cases in the area of ​​Vryheid, Melmoth and Gluckstadt."
The police are now looking at all the similar crimes that were committed in the area during that period.
"So far there are indications that the same gang may be involved in both murders and robberies.
"Only time will tell if this is so," says Booysen.

Links to Media articles:

• https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000187546157822
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 25 2022, 15:29:32 UTC
• https://graves-at-eggsa.org/main.php?g2_itemId=913384