When Jeffreys Bay businessman Claus Schroeder went missing, murder accused Jens Leunberg told his partner and co-accused not to worry, that he would sort it out.
Testifying in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday, Kristina Adler said she could only recall seeing Leunberg once on August 14 2009 – the day Schroeder went missing – when he sent her on an errand to Uitenhage.
In fact, she was not even sure if he had slept at home that night.
Cellphone records show Leunberg’s handset was either deactivated or in an area without reception between the evening of August 14 and 6am the following morning – and it is during this period that the state believes he returned to the spot where Schroeder had been murdered.
Adler and Leunberg – both from Germany – are accused of trying to defraud Schroeder and his wife, Tanja, through the sale of their Thornhill farm, Owvanhuk. When Schroeder found out, he was allegedly killed.
After spending close to a week on the witness stand, Adler was finally asked by the state yesterday to recall the details of August 14.
Adler said the last time she saw Schroeder was when he greeted her at the stables at Owvanhuk. She assumed he was looking for Leunberg. “Mr Schroeder walks out of that stable and what happens to him then?” state advocate Marius Stander asked.
Leunberg was supposed to drive their domestic worker to Uitenhage later that day. However, Adler said Leunberg told her there had been a change of plan and he needed her to do it.
On August 15, Adler woke up to multiple missed calls on her cellphone.“I saw Tanja had called me a couple of times so I phoned her back. She said she was looking for Claus and asked to speak to Jens,” Adler said.
She could not remember much else pertaining to that period.
Stander, meanwhile, not accepting Adler’s vague answers, wanted to know what she thought had happened to Schroeder. He had arrived on the farm in his Hummer, and while his vehicle remained there, Schroeder had gone missing.
“We didn’t really talk about it,” Adler said, to which Stander responded: “I also wouldn’t really talk about it if I murdered someone.”
By August 17, the police had become involved. Sniffer dogs were let loose on the farm and police searched for a body.
Adler said she was still under the impression Schroeder had just “gone off somewhere”.
“I asked Jens about Claus and he said ‘don’t worry, I will sort it out’.”
Over the two-day period, Stander said Leunberg told a frantic Tanja Schroeder 14 lies with regard to her missing husband.
Turning to Adler then, Stander asked: “Now in the last few days we have also ascertained how Mr Leunberg lied about his financial situation.
“Now tell me, have you ever met a bigger liar than Mr Leunberg?” “No,” Adler reluctantly responded. The trial continues today.