Murdered woman 6 months pregnant

Cops discover body in shallow grave at boyfriend’s Paarl home

The body of a pregnant Paarl woman, who disappeared on January 5 and is believed to have been strangled, has been found buried under rubble in the backyard of her boyfriend’s home. Nicola Pienaar, 28, was allegedly killed by her boyfriend of one year, , where he had been hoping to reconcile with a former lover. Pienaar’s body was found at the weekend in a shallow grave at Oosthuizen’s Station Street home in Paarl. Private investigator Paul Scheepers said the pretty psychologist’s assistant had been almost six months pregnant. Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said Oosthuizen, 32, would appear in the Paarl Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on charges of murder, fraud and theft of a motor vehicle. He would not confirm Pienaar’s cause of death. Oosthuizen was arrested outside the KFC at Five Ways, Port Elizabeth, on January 22, where he was found sitting in Pienaar’s mother’s car. Pienaar had last been seen driving off in the car, a gold Peugot 206, on January 5. She was reported missing by her mother, . The car was reported stolen at the same time. Oosthuizen told police at the time of his arrest that he and Pienaar had a fight and he dropped her off in Oudtshoorn on January 7. But on Saturday night – after talking to his mother, Marietjie Oosthuizen, and asking for her forgiveness – and led police to the spot where Pienaar was buried at his family’s rented railway station house. Pienaar’s body was recovered at about 11pm the same night. “There is not much to say anymore. I just want to know why he [allegedly] did it. He must tell me now,” a devastated Pienaar-Vice said yesterday. Oosthuizen, who appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court last week for theft of a motor vehicle, was transported back to Paarl at the weekend. “I have taken a tranquilliser so I am numb,” Pienaar-Vice said shortly after news of her daughter’s murder broke. “I am feeling numb and a psychologist friend is taking good care of me.” Although Pienaar and Oosthuizen had dated for about a year, it is believed he was still in love with a Port Elizabeth bank manager, whose name is being withheld for now. The woman said yesterday she needed time to think before possibly responding to questions about Oosthuizen.

Scheepers, a forensic specialist and owner of Eagle Eye Solution Technologies in the Western Cape, managed to track Oosthuizen to Port Elizabeth shortly before his arrest. He said Oosthuizen had previously worked at the Daniell Cheetah Breeding Centre near Kirkwood, and that he had lived in Port Elizabeth at the time with his then-girlfriend. “He continuously sent her [former girlfriend] postcards and tried to contact her,” Scheepers said. “He told a friend he was still in love with her. “We think he was headed to PE to [try to] get his job back and to try to reconcile with his ex, who it seems was no longer interested in him.” A member of Pienaar’s family had asked Scheepers, who specialises in kidnapping cases, to assist in the search for Pienaar. Although Scheepers said Pienaar was close to six months pregnant when she went missing, her mother did not confirm this yesterday. A Facebook page, dedicated to justice for Pienaar, also claims she was pregnant. Scheepers said when he became involved in the investigation they were unable to track Pienaar’s phone because it had been switched off on the day of her disappearance. Oosthuizen did not have a phone. “We relied on video footage and other confidential methods to track Oosthuizen to PE,” the private investigator said. Oosthuizen also used Pienaar’s petrol card to fill up with fuel on one occasion. His mother, Marietjie, could not be reached for comment. Mandy Haynes, 27, who started the Facebook page “Jaco Oosthuizen to speak the truth about Nicola’s disappearance” in support of her friend of six years, described the couple’s relationship as strange. Haynes said Paarl was a small place where most people knew each other. She had met Pienaar in about 2010 when she started dating a mutual friend. She met Oosthuizen in about August last year. “Jaco worked with my boyfriend at Domino’s, and then Debonairs, delivering pizza after hours as a part-time job,” Haynes said. “He was also dating Nicola.” She said the couple were not seen together in public very often. Pienaar was a private person, who preferred to stay at home and did not speak about herself much. Haynes found out about Pienaar’s pregnancy in September. “Jaco had an ex-girlfriend, someone he was hung up on in PE,” she said. “He spoke about her very often, even in front of Nicola. “This girl wasn’t interested in him anymore, he was heartbroken.”