Stoffels Murder Probe Continues, PG Says

Werner Menges

18 May 2011

The investigation of the murder and suspected rape of schoolgirl Magdalena Stoffels in Windhoek in late July last year will be continuing after the withdrawal of charges against the only suspect to have been accused in the case so far, Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa said yesterday.

Imalwa, whose office has been criticised over the way that charges of rape and murder were withdrawn against former suspect Junias Fillipus (33) on Friday last week, made the remark about the investigation continuing at a media briefing at her office.

No reasons were given by the prosecution when Windhoek Magistrate Elina Nandago was told on Friday that the Prosecutor General had decided to withdraw the charges on which Fillipus had spent the previous nine and a half months in custody.

Fillipus had been in custody since his arrest on July 27 last year. He was arrested shortly after Stoffels (17), who was a student at Dawid Bezuidenhout High School in Windhoek, had been found mortally injured in a river near the school. She had been attacked while on her way home from school.

Fillipus was arrested after he was found a few hundred metres from the scene of the attack. He was found washing clothes in the river.

Imalwa confirmed yesterday that the decision to withdraw the charges against Fillipus – which was a provisional withdrawal, she said – was as a result of the outcome of DNA tests that had been conducted.

The crucial evidence in the case was forensic evidence, Imalwa said. She said she decided to withdraw the case against Fillipus because the forensic tests that have been carried out showed there was no link to him in samples that had been collected for analysis as part of the investigation.

During a bail application by Fillipus in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in January the court was told that semen was found in Stoffels’s private parts during a forensic examination of her body on August 2 last year.

A sample of this material was sent to a Canadian laboratory for DNA analysis and comparison to be done, and it has now turned out that the result of this exercise did not implicate Fillipus.

Imalwa said an impression should not be created that the case has now reached a dead end. The Police’s investigation is continuing, with the Office of the Prosecutor General providing guidance during the investigation, she said.

Imalwa also defended the Police’s decision to arrest Fillipus, saying they had a reasonable suspicion that he had been involved in the attack on Stoffels, due to the fact that he was found close to the scene of the crime where he was washing clothes, with some of the clothing alleged to have had blood stains on them.

The Office of the Prosecutor General had to be satisfied to a further extent that there is evidence that on the face of it proves the charges against Fillipus, before it could decide to proceed with the prosecution against him, she added.

Imalwa agreed that Stoffels’s family should have been informed of the reasons for the decision to withdraw the charges on Friday already. She said she however had a meeting with the family, and explained her decision to them.

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