During a visit to her twin brother – murder and rape accused Moyhdian Pangkaerker – Nazley Pangkaerker said her brother denied having killed Tazne van Wyk.
Nazley, 56, took the stand on Thursday at the Western Cape High Court as a State witness in the criminal trial against her brother, where he faces 27 criminal charges including rape, murder, desecrating a corpse and incest.
Nazley testified that her brother lived with her just months before Tazne’s disappearance before he and his daughter “left with no message and no notice”.
According to Nazley, she had visited her brother in prison shortly after he was arrested and made his first court appearance in Cradock in the Eastern Cape, where he had been apprehended.
“I did not attend his first court appearance in Goodwood (Magistrate’s Court). I visited him on the Saturday at Goodwood Prison because they said he wanted to speak to me.
“He told me that he didn't have the child. I said the child is dead and he said he didn’t kill the child. He said he got a lift and the child was with him and he got assaulted. All he said to me was that there were two black men in a taxi that assaulted him and he just heard the child screaming,” said Nazley.
When probed by State prosecutor Lenro Badenhorst about who she thought “the child” was that Pangkaerker was referring to, Nazley said she thought it was “one of our sister’s grandchildren, where he was living”.
Tazne disappeared on February 7, 2020, from her home in Ravensmead when she had gone to a tuck shop to buy an ice lolly.
Her mutilated body was found in a stormwater drain in Worcester when Pangkaerker pointed out the site to police shortly after his arrest.
The matter continues.
Cape Times