South Africa

Church murder: 2 in court

Hallowe’en horror recalled

November 07, 2005 Edition 1

One suspect in the Hallowe’en killing of Paarl church caretaker Charles Jacobs was a church elder, a trusted family friend and house guest.

Kenyan-born Evans Murani, 28, appeared in the Paarl Magistrate’s Court today in connection with Jacobs’s murder. On the same charge was Selwyn Adonis, 23, who appeared with him.

As Murani left the courtroom he gesticulated furiously at Jacobs family, shaking his head again and again.

Jacobs’s body was found last Monday at the church where he worked, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latterday Saints, in Paarl East.

Jacobs was found with his head bleeding, bound by the short pants he had been wearing. He had also been wounded in the side. And on the floor, written in blood, was the word “Satun”.

Today his brother, Ivor, told the Cape Argus how he had come to find his brother’s body in a storeroom behind the church. He said Murani had come to the family’s home in Paarl East at midday on Monday, saying he was looking for Charles Jacobs.

He returned an hour later and again at 6pm. Ivor Jacobs had given him a meal, as he often did. Later that night, when his brother did not return home, Jacobs went to the church to look for him. He stumbled across the gruesome scene. His brother had been dead for some time.

“The blood was already hard on his face,” Jacobs said, visibly still in a state of shock and grief.

Jacobs said Murani had, until recently, been a church elder.

“But about three months ago my brother found out that he had no papers, no certificate.

“Such church documents were necessary to confirm his baptism and so forth. So my brother ex-communicated him.”

A police spokesman said the arrests had been made within a day by an eight-strong task team. He praised the Paarl East community for a substantial amount of information.

When the men appeared in court, Murani told magistrate Eugenia Jacobs that his home language was Swahili. Jacobs asked if he was fluent in English, and Murani said he was.

Both suspects were remanded in custody until November 15, when they can apply for bail. No charges were put to them and they were not asked to plead. No evidence was led.

They will remain at Allandale Prison in the Paarl area.

A police occult task team is involved in the investigation.

murrayw@incape.co.za