After more than five years of managing to evade police arrest, a Loerie resident has finally been arrested and brought to book for allegedly fatally stabbing a man in 2013.
Appearing briefly in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Friday, Jean-Pierre Anderson, 27, did not enter a plea and had his matter postponed to January 18 for a formal bail application.
According to the charge sheet, Anderson was arrested on December 28 2018.
Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Alwin Labans said he had been arrested for the murder of an unidentified man in November 2013.
However, Labans could not confirm why the police took a little more than five years to arrest Anderson.
Labans also could not confirm a motive for the attack which happened in Uitenhage Road, opposite Cillie High School, just before 10pm on November 23 2013.
Labans only detailed how a “long trail of blood” had been found on the roadside following the stabbing.
No further details of the murder were available at the court on Friday.
Labans did not confirm if Anderson had been on the run since the attack or if it was a lengthy police investigation which culminated in the December arrest of Anderson.
Anderson first appeared in court on the charge of murder on December 31, when his case was postponed to January 7 for profiles and other documents to be made available.
The case was then postponed to Friday.
On Friday, the court heard that though the state now had all the necessary documents in its possession, the investigating officer in the matter was on leave and was unable to attend court.
The matter was postponed to January 18 for Anderson to formally apply for bail. He remains in custody.