UPDATE: July 5
Wesley Julyan (33) from Mtwalume, accused of murdering four members of his family and setting the house alight last December, appeared in the Turton Court last week.
It was his sixth appearance, and he was sent to Fort Napier in Pietermaritzburg for a month of psychiatric observation.
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Julyan has been in jail since his arrest in Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape, on January 31, while visiting his father, a former South Coaster who owned the Mtwalume house where the murders took place.
It is believed that although the house had since been sold, it wasstanding empty and had been vandalised.
The case was postponed to August.
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May 17:
There’s been a twist in the case of Wesley Julyan who is accused of murdering four members of his family and setting the house alight.
The 33-year-old from Mtwalume made his fifth appearance in the Hibberdene Court last Thursday for bail application, which was successfully opposed by investigating officer, Detective Warrant Officer Herman Pienaar.
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After the hearing, W/O Pienaar received information from a source under oath that there could be evidence buried at the property next to the house where the murders were committed on December 19, 2017.
Police search and rescue dogs were taken to the property in Mtwalume last Thursday but were unable to detect any sign of decomposition.
Last Friday the Herald, together with W/O Pienaar and officers from Search and Rescue Port Shepstone, went to the house in Mtwalume where Jeffrey Julyan (34), Jeffrey’s son Ethan (9) Kayla McKenna (16) and Peter McKenna (73) were all murdered before the house was torched.
A TLB was used to excavate two sites where there was evidence of prior digging, but despite reaching a depth of six feet, nothing was discovered in either place.
Julyan will now be sent to Fort Napier on June 25 for a month of psychiatric observation.
He has been in jail since he was arrested in Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape, on January 31, while visiting his father, a former South Coaster who previously lived in house where the murders were committed.
The house – which has since reportedly been sold – now stands empty and has been vandalised.
A man who lives in Mtwalume said the fact that police were digging near the murder site led him to believe they were looking for more bodies. “I think there is a strong possibility that there may be other bodies there.”
In 2004 Julyan and a co-accused were convicted and sentenced for the murder of a 51-year-old Amanzimtoti man, Kenneth Gary van Aardt.
Mr van Aardt was strangled with a shoelace in 2003 and his body buried in a shallow grave near Julyan’s home.
Family spokesman, Sharon McKenna, said they were pleased that bail had been denied.
She added that her sister, Leanne, married to Jeffrey and the mother of Ethan and Kayla, is trying hard to get through each day.
She found last Sunday, Mother’s Day, particularly difficult.
“It was her first Mother’s Day without her children,” said Ms McKenna.
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