• MEDIA RELEASE

    Statement by:

    Rick Crouch
    Rick Crouch & Associates
    Private Investigators & Digital Forensics

    03 May 2017 

    Release: Immediate

    SENZO MEYIWA MURDER NOW A COLD CASE

    Despite what the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Hawks say, the Senzo Meyiwa case can now be classified as a cold case.

    A case is classified as a cold case when there are no new substantial leads and all previous leads have dried up and turned to nothing.

    With a murder case, more than other types of crimes, you have a window of 48 hours in which to develop your leads and hopefully arrest a suspect. Every hour that passes after the first 48 makes it less likely that an arrest will be made and the case solved. The case in which Senzo Meyiwa was murdered has now dragged on for more than 2 years and 6 months which equates to approximately 22000 hours. Neither the police nor the Hawks have much chance of solving this murder. Especially when you consider a statement in April 2016 by acting national police commissioner, at the time, Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane, when he told Parliament that “there is a possible cover-up in the case”.

    The problems with the case right from the beginning:

    • The crime scene was not immediately secured by the first responding officers;
    • People were allowed to enter and exit the crime scene at will corrupting the crime scene;
    • Police failed to confiscate two cell phones belonging to Mthokozisi Twala;
    • Standard forensic procedures related to crime scenes were not followed, for example, no gunpowder residue tests were done on the people who were present in the house at the time of the murder. This should have been done to everyone at the scene because it helps in eliminating them as suspects.
    • The police caved to public and political pressure which caused them to arrest the wrong person
    • The docket has been a ping-pong ball bounced between Provincial SAPS, Vosloorus SAPS, and Hawks

    Unfortunately for the family the case is now cold and it will take investigators who specialize in cold cases to solve this case, because of the time that has passed it is going to take some specialized skill and a lot of time to now solve this cases, but with specialists it is possible.

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    Media Contact:

    Rick Crouch
    Rick Crouch & Associates
    Private Investigators & Digital Forensics
    Mobile: 076.449.5263 | Web: www.rickcrouch.co.za