A former Pietermaritzburg police officer and a convicted wife killer, Morné Croeser, has died just two years after being released on parole.

The Witness reports that Croeser, who served eight years of an 18-year prison sentence for the brutal killing of his wife Erika, was granted parole in 2022 with the consent of Erika’s family.

He reportedly died from a heart attack.

Croeser, a former SAPS K9 unit dog handler based at Mountain Rise in Pietermaritzburg, was convicted in 2010 for stabbing Erika 14 times in the face and neck at their Albert Falls home. The attack took place in the early hours of August 28, 2010, after the couple had returned from a night out at a pub.

After killing his wife, Croeser stabbed himself in the abdomen in an apparent attempt to stage the scene and mislead investigators.

A full bench of the Pietermaritzburg High Court later described the murder as an ‘explosion of rage’. In 2014, three judges — Johan Ploos van Amstel, Gregory Kruger and Kate Pillay — dismissed his appeal against conviction but reduced his sentence from 23 to 18 years.

The court noted that Croeser, who had no prior criminal record, was ‘not a criminal in the ordinary sense of the word’, but had struggled with anger issues.

During the trial, evidence showed that the couple’s marriage had been stormy. Erika had previously applied for a protection order, and Croeser had been involved in an extramarital affair with a local teacher, Ruth Sinclair, whom he later married in 2018 while still behind bars at Pietermaritzburg’s New Prison.

At the time of his release, her twin brother, Francois Schafer, confirmed that the family had participated in a mediation process before agreeing to his release.

After his parole, Croeser appeared to be rebuilding his life, working as a trainer and marketing and sales representative for a KZN security company, according to his social media profile.

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