A KILLER WAS REFERRED FOR PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION
The High Court of South Africa: Western Cape Division has convicted Kyle Ruiters, on charges of premeditated murder, violating a corpse, and attempting to defeat the administration of justice. The State has now asked the court to refer Ruiters to Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital, for a 30-day observation after an initial report from the same institution declared that he has “definite psychopathic traits” and that “if convicted the court should be advised that he could be declared a danger to the physical and mental well-being of others as envisaged in Section 286A of the Criminal Procedure Act.”
The prosecutor, Deputy Director Adv Louise Friester, says the court must after receiving the report, be satisfied that Ruiters represents a danger to the physical or mental well-being of other persons and that the community must be protected against him before imposing an appropriate sentence. Both requirements must be met, she emphasises. Once he is declared a dangerous criminal, he will spend an indefinite period in prison with his condition assessed after a period to determine his state of mind and whether he is still a danger to society.
Ll
The State’s decision follows the gruesome murder Ruiters committed on 21 August 2019, when he stabbed 32-year-old Lynette Volschenk, inside her flat in Bellville.
In his plea of guilty in terms of Section 112(2) of Act of 1977 yesterday, Ruiters told the court that he was an extensive drug user and owed his drug dealer R30 000 and he had threatened him with severe consequences if he did not pay. He formulated a plan to murder someone to take their valuable items to pay to settle the debt.
He initially researched various possible victims, taking notes, and making videos of their movements to and from their residence, their places of work, and any incidental places they frequented. He also tracked their social media activities. He did the same with Volschenk and made notes of his intention to kill her. He even drafted a message for her family and friends in case they came looking for her, but he did not post the message but kept it on his phone.
On the afternoon of 21 August 2019, he watched her walk to her flat which was above his own, waited for her as she opened her flat, and followed her inside. He, without provocation, grabbed a knife that was on the counter and stabbed her several times in the neck and body. She screamed, resisted the attack, and sustained defensive wounds on her hands and upper forearms, as a result. She stopped moving and he realised that she was dead.
He decided to dismember her body to dispose of her body.
In an earlier psychiatric report following an order of the Bellville Magistrates Court on 01 December 2022, Ruiters told psychiatrists that he was fascinated by serial killers, and he researched the topic extensively. Among others, he researched Ted Bundy but was most fascinated with the Zodiac Killer who has never been caught. He also researched the dismemberment of bodies.
He used a handheld saw he found in the flat to dismember her body. He dragged the body to various parts of the flat as he carried out the gruesome task. It proved difficult and abandoned it on the evening of 21 August 2019. He went to his flat, changed his clothes, and went to sleep.
LThe next morning, he went back to the flat, took her head which he already dismembered from the rest of the body, put it in a backpack, and disposed of it in the buses along Jip de Jager Driver, Bellville. He then proceeded to a hardware store where he bought a set of yellow gloves and a backsaw. He told the court that after dismembering her body, into nine parts, he took them to his flat. He used cooler boxes and bags he found in the deceased’s flat.
Later he returned to the deceased’s flat and removed bloodied items that he deposited in waste bins. He then attempted to clean the blood splatters in the flat.
Meanwhile, the deceased’s colleagues were alarmed when she did not show up at work. They contacted a resident in the block of flats who went to look for her, she found the security gate of the deceased’s flat open, the front door locked, and the deceased’s vehicle still in the parking bay. The resident reported this to the security who, together with the deceased’s sister who arrived, the resident and two other colleagues then proceeded to the flat.
They knocked and the accused, still wearing the yellow gloves, opened for them.
They confronted him and he told them that he was working for her, and she paid him to clean her flat. There was still blood on the walls and some body parts were still inside the flat. They called the police, and he was arrested. Police found black bags with the deceased’s body parts in his flat. He misled the police and took them to Jack Miller Park, Frans Conradie Road, Bellville, where claimed he disposed of the head although he knew that he dumped it in the bushes near Jip de Jager Road, Bellville. This constituted the attempt to defeat the administration of justice charge.
Judge Robert Henny postponed the matter to 9 June 2023, and he informed the accused that he will be detained in prison until a place is available at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital.
