'Do not come in' - chilling notes lead to bodies
Five handwritten notes laid out neatly on a dining room table were the only clues left after a Port Elizabeth man allegedly killed his wife‚ stuffed her body in a chest freezer and hanged himself days later in his garage.
The grisly discovery of the bodies was made on Monday after neighbours spotted two notes stuck to the patio window and glass door of the couple’s Sherwood townhouse – one of which instructed anyone passing by to call the police.
Martin van der Merwe‚ 64‚ allegedly killed his wife Jenny‚ 67‚ with a hammer last week and stored her body in a freezer in the garage.
The bodies of the two childless pensioners were found in the garage of their Everwood Complex townhouse in Worthing Street shortly after 7.30am.
Police described the scene as a “bizarre murder-suicide”.
One of the notes on the window read: “Pls [Please] do not come in. Phone SAP. Front door keys in our post box at front gate.”
Van der Merwe‚ in an alleged handwritten confession‚ spelt out how he had killed his wife on Monday last week and stored her body in the chest freezer in the garage.
Police said five A5 pages of notes had been left in the house.
Van der Merwe’s body was found hanging from a roof beam while his wife’s‚ wrapped in black plastic sheeting‚ was on the back of an open Corsa bakkie.