‘Devilsdorp killer’ John Barnard dies in prison of ‘natural causes’

John Barnard, one of the six members of a religious fringe group from Krugersdorp linked to grisly murders, has died in prison.

“Offender John Anthony Bernard died last night [Sunday] due to natural causes,” department of correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said on Monday.

“He was detained at Barberton correctional centre.”

Nxumalo did not state the cause of death.

Barnard was one of the six Krugersdorp killers profiled in the Devilsdorp television series who collaborated in the murders of 11 people on Johannesburg’s West Rand between 2012 and 2016.

A printmaker by trade, he was 42 years old when he was sentenced to a 20-year prison term in December 2016 for his part in the murders and robberies. 

A book, On the Devil’s Trail: How I hunted down the Krugersdorp Killers, has been published on Ben Booysen, the police detective who cracked the case. 

He discovered the ringleader was Cecilia Steyn, a mother of two and a policeman's wife.

Steyn was the leader of a cult she called Electus per Deus (Chosen by God). She targeted members of a Krugersdorp church group after a fallout with the leader of the group, Ria Grunewald. Steyn began taking revenge on Grunewald's followers, first with threats and then by ordering their murders. 

When the group ran out of money, they targeted victims for money.

The killings were carried out by Marinda Steyn, a schoolteacher, her teenage children Le Roux and Marcel, and Zak Valentine, an insurance broker who agreed to his own wife being killed when she wanted to break away from the cult. Valentine tried to fake his own death in an insurance scam for a life policy Steyn attempted to claim.

Barnard, a friend of Marinda's, confessed to playing a role in the last seven murders committed by the group, the “appointment murders” of victims for cash, including an estate agent and financial adviser. 

The five other killers are serving multiple terms of life imprisonment.

TimesLIVE