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Samuel SIDYNO
A.K.A.: "Capital Park serial killer"
Classification: Spree killer
Characteristics:
Serial rapist
Number of victims: 7
Date of murders: November 1998 - January 1999
Date
of arrest: January 6, 1999
Date of birth: 1962
Victims profile: Two women, Paulinah Ledwaba and
Elizabeth Senwamadi, youths Ronald Maoka and Emmanuel Mavuka, and
three youths who have not been identified
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Pretoria, Gauteng Province, South Africa
Status: Sentenced to seven life terms in prison (minimum 40
years) on September 6, 2000
South African Serial Killer Samuel Sidyno
was sentenced to seven life terms in August of 2000 for the killings of
two women and five boys in 1998 and 1999.
DNA evidence linking Sidyno to
the death of Pauline Ledwaba, plus his own confession (which he later
recanted) proved this heinous murderer guilty. All the victims were
found in close proximity to each other near the Pretoria Zoo. Despite
leading police to one of victims' decomposing corpse, Sidyno maintained
his innocence throughout his trial.
Sidyno killed by strangulation, leaving
his victims under hastily gathered piles of sticks and brush in a park
next to the zoo. He had a couple of bizarre murderous habits, such as
lining up the victims' shoes neatly next to their body and re-clothing
the corpses, with the exlcusion of their underwear.
This serial
murdering sexual sadist will be eligible for parole in forty years,
though his sentencing judge declared him to impossible to rehabilitate.
Serial killer gets 7
life terms
Dispatch.co.za
Wednesday, September 6, 2000
PRETORIA -- Serial killer Samuel
Sidyno was sentenced in the high court yesterday to seven life terms for
his "cold-blooded and cruel" murder spree here in late 1998 and early
1999.
Judge Johan van der Westhuizen
said Sidyno, 35, was a dangerous man and it would be unwise to ever
let him loose again. He recommended Sidyno serve at least 40 years
of his sentence before being considered for parole.
Sidyno was sentenced to life
imprisonment for the murders of two women, Paulinah Ledwaba and
Elizabeth Senwamadi, youths Ronald Maoka and Emmanuel Mavuka, and
three youths who have not been identified.
Sidyno used his hands to squeeze the
life out of his victims after luring them to his "lair" on a lonely
hill north of the city.
All of the victims were murdered in
a period of less than five weeks.
From Sidyno's confession, it
appeared the victims had been murdered after arguments about small
sums of money or because they had "bothered" Sidyno.
Van der Westhuizen said all the
victims were defenceless and seemed to have been poor. Sidyno "hunted
those he considered easy prey".
Although there was not enough
evidence to classify him as a sadistic sexual murderer, he was a very
dangerous man who had murdered his victims in a cruel and cold-blooded
manner without ever showing any remorse.
There was a macabre pattern in the
way he left the victims on their stomachs with their shoes removed and
their bodies covered with branches.
All indications were that he would
have continued his murderous spree if he had not been caught, the
judge said.
Pretoria serial killer convicted of
7 murders
IndependentonSaturday.co.za
August 30, 2000
A Pretoria High Court judge on Wednesday convicted
Samuel Sidyno of seven murders, adding him to South Africa's growing
list of serial killers.
During his trial before Judge Johan van der
Westhuizen, a picture emerged of a man who lured women and youths
between the ages of 12 and 19 to a desolate hill not far from the
Pretoria city centre.
He lived nearby, in a room at a water tower close to
the Pretoria Zoo.
In the densely bushed area of Capital Park hill,
Sidyno assaulted and strangled two women and five youths in a killing
spree which lasted less than three months before the first body was
discovered by a school janitor.
The decomposing remains of his seven victims were
discovered within a few days of each other - some by members of the
public and others by police.
One of the bodies was found while Sidyno was pointing
out the places where he killed his victims.
The victims were ritualistically placed on their
stomachs, their shoes removed and their bodies covered with branches.
Many of the youths had their underpants removed and
then replaced.
Sidyno, in a statement before the magistrate
described in detail how he strangled each victim until they stopped
moving.
In the Pretoria High Court, he gave a rambling and
often incoherent account of what he alleged was daily torture sessions
by up to 15 policemen.
He said the sessions were aimed at getting a
confession from him.
He claimed he knew nothing about the murders and
suggested the police must have murdered the seven people, and that he
might well have been number eight.
The state paraded almost the entire Pretoria murder
and robbery unit before him, but he could not point out his alleged
attackers.
The only injury doctors and a magistrate recorded was
an abrasion on his cheek.
Police said he was wearing leg irons and handcuffs
when he pointed out the murder scenes, and fell on the rough terrain.
Van der Westhuizen on Monday rejected claims by
Sidyno's counsel that he must be suffering from a mental illness,
despite the fact that a state psychiatrist found him to be normal and
able to stand trial.
He said Sidyno made a poor impression on the court
and told obvious lies. His evidence was lively and enthusiastic, and he
never gave the impression that he was suffering from a mental illness or
defect.
Sidyno was convicted of murdering Paulinah Ledwaba
and stealing her jeans. Sidyno was wearing her jeans during his arrest
and some of her possessions were found in his room.
DNA evidence positively linked his semen and blood to
a T-shirt and tissue found with her body.
Although there was no DNA to link Sidyno to the rest
of the bodies - most of them found in a severely decomposed state - the
judge said similar facts linked all of the cases.
All of the bodies, except the last one, were
discovered close to each other on the hill near the Zoo.
The bodies were also arranged in a similar manner and
Sidyno pointed out seven different scenes to the police in or very near
to the places where the bodies were actually found.
The judge also convicted Sidyno for the murders of
Elizabeth Senwamadi, two youths - Ronald Maoka and Emmanuel Mavuka N and
three youths who could not be identified.
He could, however, not find Sidyno guilty of raping
his two female victims because there was no positive evidence to the
effect.
Sidyno, in his statement before the magistrate,
claimed they consented to have sex with him, but started arguing about
payment, which was why he murdered them.
The trial will continue on Thursday, when the State
is expected to lead evidence about Sidyno's prior convictions - which he
refused to admit.
Samuel Sidyno
August 21, 2000
The Pretoria High Court admitted as
evidence a confession made by alleged Capital Park serial killer Samuel
Sidyno to police. Sidyno has pleaded not guilty to murdering two women
and five boys between November 1998 and January last year. He also
denied guilt on two charges of rape and two of robbery.
Judge Johan van der Westhuizen was presented with
notes of a statement, made during a "pointing-out" to the police,
despite claims by Sidyno that police had assaulted him and forced him to
make the statement. Sidyno claimed earlier this week the police had
murdered the victims and that he "could have been the eighth body". He
claimed some 15 policemen had taken turns to hit and kick him, but could
not point out any of his alleged attackers and could not explain why a
photograph taken of him after the pointing-out showed no signs of the
alleged assault.
Superintendent M H van Rooyen testified that Sidyno
had voluntarily pointed out six murder scenes on a hill in Capital Park
behind the Pretoria Zoo where he claimed to have killed and left the
bodies of his victims. The skull of one of the bodies was discovered
under a bush during the pointing-out, but only after Sidyno lifted the
branches with which the decomposed body was covered.
Court accepts zoo-killer suspect's
confession
IndependentonSaturday.co.za
August 18, 2000
A confession, made by alleged Capital
Park serial killer Samuel Sidyno in which he described strangling six
victims, was admitted as evidence against him in the Pretoria High Court
on Friday.
Sidyno has pleaded not guilty to murdering two women
and five boys between November 1998 and January last year. He also
denied guilt on two charges of rape and two of robbery.
Judge Johan van der Westhuizen was presented with
notes of a statement, made during a "pointing-out" to the police,
despite claims by Sidyno that police had assaulted him and forced him to
make the statement.
Sidyno claimed earlier this week the police had
murdered the victims and that he "could have been the eighth body".
He claimed that about 15 policemen had taken turns to
hit and kick him - but could not point out any of his alleged attackers
and could not explain why a photograph taken of him after the pointing-out
showed no signs of the alleged assault.
Superintendent M H van Rooyen testified that Sidyno
had voluntarily pointed out six murder scenes on a hill in Capital Park
behind the Pretoria Zoo where he allegedly claimed to have killed and
left the bodies of his victims.
The skull of one of the bodies was discovered under a
bush during the pointing-out, but only after Sidyno lifted the branches
with which the decomposed body was covered.
From Sidyno's statement, it appeared that he knew the
names of some of the victims, whom he had met and taken to the hill. He
persuaded some to accompany him to find work and others with promises of
giving them a place to stay.
In each case, he claimed there was a "fight" with the
victim, mostly about money - after which he put his hands around the
victim's neck and squeezed until they lay still. Only one of the victims,
a young boy, was still moving slightly when he covered the body with
branches.
He confessed to taking small amounts of money from
some of his victims and also told police that he had sex with two female
victims before strangling them.
He had taken the jeans of one of the female victims.
The court earlier heard evidence that Sidyno was wearing a women's
jeans, which were identified as belonging to one of his victims, when he
was arrested.
He was also linked to the scene where her body was
found by DNA evidence taken from semen and blood found on and near her
body.
DNA links suspected serial killer
to body
IndependentonSaturday.co.za
August 14, 2000
A DNA expert has positively linked
alleged Capital Park serial killer Samuel Sidyno to the scene where the
body of one of his alleged victims was discovered near the Pretoria Zoo
more than a year ago.
Sidyno has denied guilt before the
Pretoria High Court of seven murder charges, two of rape and two of
robbery. He claims he had nothing to do with any of the crimes.
It is alleged that he raped and killed
two women and murdered five boys between November 1998 and January 1999.
Forensic expert Superintendent Karin
Botha testified that a DNA sample taken from Sidyno was an almost
perfect match to a semen sample taken from a T-shirt thrown over the
body of Paulinah Ledwaba, one of the alleged victims.
Sidyno's blood and semen, mixed with
Ledwaba's blood, was also found on a piece of tissue paper near her body.
Forensic pathologist Hendrik Scholtz,
who performed an autopsy on Ledwaba's body, said her death was caused by
strangulation.
She had bruises around her neck and
had probably been strangled with something like a piece of clothing.
It appeared from abrasions on
Ledwaba's body that she had been moved after her death.
Ledwaba's body was, in a similar
fashion to the six other bodies alleged to be those of Sidyno's victims,
found lying prone and covered with branches, her shoes placed neatly
next to her.
Ledwaba's sister, Eunice, testified
that she had last seen her sister wearing a pair of blue jeans on
January 2. She identified the jeans that Sidyno was wearing during his
arrest as her sister's.
Pathologist Marcel Naude testified
that another alleged victim, Elizabeth Senwamadi, whose body was
discovered in the veld near the zoo in December 1998, also died of
strangulation.
Although the body was severely
decomposed, a piece of material was found wrapped around the neck and
there were also signs of damage to the neck muscles.
Scholtz, who also examined the bodies
of the boys - three of whom were never identified - said a strange
feature in some of the cases was that the underpants had been removed,
but the trousers replaced and zipped up.
The bodies were all between three
weeks and three months old when found, and were mostly severely
decomposed.
In one case, the skull was no longer
attached to the body and in another wild animals had started eating the
body, Scholtz said.
He said the fact that the bodies were
covered with branches made it difficult to determine the time of death.
Court told of killer's zoo 'burial
ground'
IndependentonSaturday.co.za
August 8, 2000
The man alleged to be the Capital Park
serial killer, Samuel Sidyno, on Tuesday told the Pretoria High Court he
knew nothing about a number of bodies found on a hill near Pretoria Zoo
in January last year.
Sidyno, 37, pleaded not guilty to
seven murder, two rape and two robbery charges when he appeared before
Justice Johan van der Westhuizen.
The state alleges that between
November 1998 and January 1999, Sidyno raped and strangled two women -
Kedibone Ledwaba and Elizabeth Senwamadi - in Capital Park, Pretoria.
He allegedly also robbed Ledwaba of
clothes and cash.
He is also accused of murdering two
unidentified boys, murdering and robbing a man known only as Oupa, and
killing another two boys, Tsholofelo Maoka and Emmanuel Mavuka.
The decomposed body of one of the boys,
who was known as Mannetjie, was found on a hill in Pretoria North and
the rest were discovered on a hill near Pretoria Zoo.
The cause of death of the last group
of bodies could not be determined, as most were in an advanced state of
decomposition.
Prosecutor Christo Roberts said the
bodies were discovered in quick succession after the first one came to
light.
All the bodies were found in similar
circumstances - on their stomachs, covered with branches and with their
shoes removed and placed neatly next to the bodies.
Sidyno's DNA was found on a T-shirt
and tissues near the body of Ledwaba, and a belt and snuff box, said to
have been in her possession before she disappeared were found in a tower
in Capital Park, where Sidyno, used to live.
When he was arrested, Sidyno was
wearing denim pants which were later identified as belonging to Ledwaba.
Roberts said Sidyno subsequently
pointed out several of the murder sites in Capital Park to police. One
of the bodies was also discovered in the process. A few days later, he
made a similar confession to a magistrate.
When a body, lying on its stomach and
covered with branches, was found in Pretoria North a short while later,
Sidyno was again questioned and pointed out a spot in Pretoria North to
police.
Roberts said Sidyno was sent for
psychiatric observation, but was found to be accountable for his actions.
Sidyno, who said he was Afrikaans-speaking
and did not need an interpreter, repeatedly told the court that he "knew
nothing" about any of the murders.
He tried to tell the court of an
alleged assault by the police, but the judge said he would get a chance
to do so in due course.
The state on Tuesday led police
evidence about the various murder scenes and involving a map drawn up by
police.
Pretoria serial killer suspect was on parole
Weekly Mail & Guardian
- 1999
The Department of Correctional Services deemed Samuel
Sidymo fit to be freed on parole nine months before completing his
sentence. But one day after he broke his parole conditions Pretoria
police arrested him on suspicion that he is a serial murderer who went
on a killing spree from December 1998 to January 6 this year.
Six bodies were discovered on Capital Hill near the
Pretoria zoo and overlooking the Union Buildings. Senior Superintendent
Rudi van Olst, head of the Pretoria murder and robbery unit, said this
week police are confident Sidymo is linked to the murders. He was
released in November after serving three-and-a-half years of a sentence
of four years and 90 days for rape, assault and robbery.
During his time in prison, he was charged with assault
and possession of dagga. However, correctional services representative
Russel Mamabolo insists Sidymo earned his parole: "He wasn't
problematic in prison."
Police say Sidymo (37) initially denied any
involvement in the Capital Hill killings, but cracked when confronted
with physical evidence. DNA analyses have also implicated him, they say.
The Pretoria murder and robbery unit says it made the
fastest arrest ever in connection with serial killings - within 48 hours
of beginning an intensive investigation. Says Van Olst: "A lot of
investigations still have to be done ... but at the end of the day this
case is going to be strong."
At the beginning of the investigation police were not
aware of Sidymo's criminal history, or that he had contravened his
parole conditions. Van Olst says tenacious detective work led to the
arrest of the man accused of having had a short rein of terror over the
Christmas and New Year season.
The first victim, a woman, was found on December 14.
Her body was so badly decomposed that police had to reconstruct her face
in order to identify her. Police treated the case as an isolated
incident of murder.
On the second morning of 1999, two more bodies were
found on the hill. These too had been there for several days. They were
men in their late teens.
It was then that Van Olst ordered his men to comb the
2km2 area. "We picked up everything that did not blend with the
natural environment and questioned people in the vicinity." More
than 100 police officers and police dogs were deployed. That afternoon
they found a fourth body. It was a boy aged between 12 and 14.
By January 4 police had established there was a serial
killer on the loose. He had somehow managed to lure unsuspecting victims
to this quiet hill with a scenic view of Pretoria and then strangled
them.
A team of 10 detectives found the fifth victim, a
woman, on January 4. The next day police set up 24-hour surveillance on
Capital Hill.
They didn't have too long a wait because at about 4am
the suspect was found strolling about and police picked him up for
questioning. He was immediately linked to some of the clues picked up
two days previously.
Sidymo appeared in court on charges of murder and the
case was postponed to the end of February.
Van Olst believes the suspect was acting alone despite
the discovery of the sixth victim after Sidymo's arrest. Police say this
body was badly decomposed.
Samuel Sidyno (7+)
Police are not ruling out the possibility that the hills around Pretoria
could be littered with the remains of more victims of alleged serial
killer Samuel Sidyno. This announcement follows the discovery of a
seventh body found January 16, 1999, by a group of children hiking in
Mountain View in the Magaliesberg.
Senior Superintendent Rudi van Olst, commander of
murder and robbery, said there was a possibility of more bodies being
found in the hills around Pretoria. "By taking into account certain
similarities between the murder scenes at Capital Hill and the recent
one, we can say beyond reasonable doubt that it is the work of the
serial killer Samuel Sidyno. The modus operandi is very similar to the
Capital Hill murders," he said.
Sidyno was arrested on January 6, two days after the
body of a fourth victim was found on a hill close to Pretoria's zoo. So
far the bodies of two women, a 12-year-old boy, two 19-year-old men and
another man all badly decomposed have been found at Capital Hill.
