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Kirsten Kluyts killed within 8 minutes of arriving at Sandton park, court hears
The 34-year-old teacher was attacked while participating in a MyRun event.
Kirsten Kluyts was murdered on 29 October 2023. Picture: Facebook/Hoedspruit Parkrun
Johannesburg teacher Kirsten Kluyts was killed within an eight-minute window of her arrival for a race in Sandton.
The bail application of Kluyts’ alleged murder continued at the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for closing arguments.
The state is opposing the accused’s release on bail.
Background
Kluyts, a teacher at Delta Park High School, was attacked while participating in a MyRun event in Sandton on 29 October 2023.
The 34-year-old’s body was found at George Lea Park in Parkmore following her disappearance.
Her running shoes, sunglasses, blue T-shirt, pants, and pink cap were taken.
WATCH: ‘I didn’t want to be involved’- Accused explains why he took Kirsten Kluyts’ clothes
The victim was 14 weeks pregnant and was expecting a boy at the time of her murder.
Her alleged killer was subsequently arrested at his student residence on 26 November after the police obtained video footage from the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the vicinity of Parkmore.
The 21-year-old college student is facing charges of rape, robbery with aggravating circumstances and premeditated murder.
‘Same person’
During proceedings on Wednesday, state prosecutor Ayanda Bakana read out the affidavit of the investigating officer, Aubrey Tshisani, into the record.
The investigating officer, in the written statement, indicated that he was informed by a witness that Kluyts was walking during the race, rather than jogging, due to her pregnancy.
Tshisani said Kluyts’ body, which was found naked, was transported to Hillbrow mortuary, where a pathologist informed him that the cause of the victim’s death was blunt force head trauma, strangulation, smothering and pressure to the neck.
The officer revealed that a picture of Kluyts was taken at 8.05am, which was around the time she arrived to participate in the event.
“Camera footage was viewed at the entrance of the park, I saw the deceased coming into the park at around 08:04am,” said Bakana, while reading out Tshisani’s affidavit.
A black African man, with a tattoo on his right arm, wearing a black T-shirt was also seen in the footage around the same time Kluyts arrived, according to the officer.
Her phone was found by another runner at around 8.15am and handed to the MyRun event timekeeper.
“[This means] the murder occurred in the period of plus minus eight minutes and the deceased was found naked. I then looked at the footage of the person entering at the park wearing a black t-shirt and the one wearing the deceased’s t-shirt and saw that it was the same person.
“I followed this person on different camera footage and I saw this African male throwing a cap inside the drain and went back to check if someone can be able to see it from a distance,” the affidavit further reads.
Watch the proceedings below:
Accused admissions
On Tuesday, the accused told the court that he arrived in Sandton between 9:00am and 10:00am on the morning of Kluyts’ murder from a party in Tsutsumani, Alexandra.
According to evidence obtained from cellphone towers, the suspect was in Sandton at 7:35am. He was seen moving approximately 100 metres behind Kluyts at the MyRun event.
But the 21-year-old has denied stalking Kluyts.
Instead, he said the CCTV footage of him was taken at a different time and not the same time when Kluyts was photographed.
READ MORE: Kirsten Kluyts’ alleged murderer denies killing teacher but admits to wearing her shirt
The accused is adamant he did not rape or murder Kluyts, but conceded that he stole her clothes as he had contaminated the crime scene with his fingerprints.
He admitted that he wore her blue shirt and admitted to later disposing of it, along with her other clothing items.
The suspect also told the court that he should rather be facing charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice.
Additionally, a preliminary post-mortem report has revealed that there were no visible signs of injury to Kluyts’ private parts.
Defence lawyer Itumeleng Masako has argued that the rape charge against his client should be dropped.
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