Cops still hunt B1 Butcher

Nearly 10 years after the first of his brutal killings sickened the nation, the police say they have not given up the hunt for the B1 Butcher. Police spokesperson Edwin Kanguatjivi told Namibian Sun at the weekend they are still looking for the killer or killers. “The case is still open and we are still investigating. The case isn’t closed,” he said. Asked about a man who had committed suicide in 2008, Kanguatjivi said Hans Husselman was merely a suspect and had not been identified as the killer. “As it is, the file is not closed, it’s still being investigated,” he said. Namibia’s first serial killer was termed the B1 Butcher for the way he carved up his victims and disposed of them along the national road. The B1 Butcher has since been listed by popular international website Listverse as number six on its list of ten evil serial killers worldwide that are still on the run. The first B1 Butcher victim was 22-year-old Melanie Janse, whose body was discovered lying next to the Western Bypass near the Van Eck Power Station on August 20, 2005. Next, the body of Juanita Mabula was discovered lying next to the Western Bypass in the area of the Windhoek Turf Club, on the morning of September 25 in the same year. She had been decapitated. Almost a month later, on October 24, her head was found in a plastic shopping bag next to a road culvert 5km south of the Groot Aub turnoff on the Windhoek-Rehoboth road. In June 2007, the B1 Butcher is suspected to have struck again, after a female human torso that had been cut in two, was found in a rubbish bin next to the B1, about 42km north of Windhoek. Two human thighs were later found in another rubbish bin 25km north of Rehoboth. Later, a human head, two lower legs and two feet - of which the three middle toes of each were cut off - were found lying next to the B6/Trans-Kalahari road, about 35km east of Windhoek. The victim was later identified as Sanna Helena //Garoes. At that time, the police neither confirmed nor ruled out the possibility that these deaths may be linked to the death of another young woman, 18-year-old Viola Swartbooi, who was buried naked in a shallow grave at Rehoboth on December 28, in 2005. The B1 Butcher or a copycat may have been active for the last time in 2010, when a human head and arm were found in Rehoboth. WINDHOEK GORDON JOSEPH