THIS SUMMER, PUCKER UP WITH BLACK LIPS and more...

INSIDE TODAY
The lucky
VAMPIRES ARE pilot who
EVERYWHERE, survived
HOME LIGHTING two bad
GOES RETRO AND plane
QUICK STIR FRIES crashes  P3
GET EVEN YUMMIER with

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29 2009 Established October 17 1887 R5,00 inc VAT (R5,30 outside Gauteng) Zimbabwe US$1 Annual subscribers: R4,36 ★★★★★ www.star.co.za ★★★★

Lovesick teen’s ‘murder plot’

Schoolgirl held in 3 women die in mountain hiking tragedy
sting as ‘assassin’
reveals he’s a cop
ALEX ELISEEV day. Mitchell spent two nights
behind bars and was released into

W
HILE her mother and
grandmother
browsed through
Sandton City, 18-year-
old Brittany Mitchell sneaked off to
meet an assassin at the Mugg &
Bean coffee shop.
She sent him an SMS to confirm
he was there. He was at a table near
the entrance. His SMS reply gave
her his table number.
Her alleged plan to pay a hit
man R2 000 to kill the woman she
blamed for a broken heart was
finally coming together.
This is the astounding story
revealed by the police this morn-
ing.
According to the police this is
what happened immediately after
the two had met:
Mitchell, who was celebrating
her 18th birthday that day, sat down
with the man wearing a pair of sun-
glasses. She double-checked he was
there to meet her. He confirmed it.
The teenager handed over R2 000
and a photograph of her ex-
boyfriend’s
mother – the
woman she
believed caused
the break-up and She is still young
who had a protec-
tion order against and you don’t know
her.
how young people’s
The man took
off his sunglasses. brains work
Mitchell didn’t
know it, but this
was the signal for
police officer Captain Appel Ernst
to make her move.
The “assassin” facing the
teenage girl was in fact detective
Superintendent Gert Kruger. And
she was now under arrest for con-
spiracy to commit murder.
Mitchell’s shock turned to tears,
and a man sitting at a nearby table
approached to check if everything
was fine. Kruger quickly filled him
in, putting the money and photo-
graph into evidence bags.
The trap had been filmed by
undercover officers seated at tables
nearby.
Kruger allowed the youngster to
point out her mother.
He approached the unsuspecting
woman, saying “we have a prob-
lem”.
For Ernst, who has 26 years’
service, her first undercover opera-
tion was a thrill and a success. She
said Mitchell kept asking if her
arrest would be in the news, appar-
ently terrified of the exposure.
This bizarre plot – which
Kruger said equalled something
from the crime channels on televi-
sion – played out last week Wednes-
her parents’ custody, on R2 000 bail
at the Randfontein Magistrate’s
Court on Friday.
“She has gone back to Pieter-
maritzburg (her hometown),”
Ernst said. “She is busy writing
exams.”
Mitchell is due back in court on
December 1.
The teenager is a matric pupil at
a top KwaZulu-Natal private school
and allegedly met her 24-year-old
boyfriend on social networking site
Facebook last year. He lives with
his family in Melville and, it
appears, his 45-year-old mother was
the driving force behind him end-
ing the relationship.
It alleged Mitchell harassed the
family to the point where they took
out a protection order against her.
The boyfriend’s family has not been
identified but, according to Kruger,
were shocked to hear of the foiled
plot.
Reluctant to give away too many
details ahead of the pending court
case, Kruger explained that
Mitchell had made
contact with a man
working in the
“security busi-
ness” in Rand-
fontein.
It is not clear
how she got onto PERISHED: Baronese Jongbloed, 51, is one of three people who died of exposure during a hiking trip in the Swartberg near Oudtshoorn. PICTURE: PETER NEETHLING
him, but it may
have been through
ing to hire him.
an advert. She sent
him an SMS with
her request, hop- Doomed climbers’ last hours in Cape snowstorm
The man notified the police and
Kruger was assigned to investigate. MURRAY WILLIAMS Hans, 38 and 42, a surveyor and air- “He struggled with her,” Hill would have been dead,” Hill said.
“At first we thought it was a joke. force instructor respectively. reported. The one rescue party travelling
We were communicating mostly IMAGES have emerged of the des- Yesterday, police said none of the “Leon told his brother and Lindy by foot had to turn back at nightfall,
through SMSes,” he said. perate last hours of three Cape Town survivors wished to speak, and were to go ahead and try and get some while another team in a 4x4 reached
Kruger and Mitchell spoke once women who died in a snowstorm – severely traumatised. help.” the hut at about 4am on Monday
and he felt the teenager was seri- leaving their families shattered. Initially, their group was meant to Ahead was a hikers’ hut, where morning.
ous. In scenes likened to a Himalayan have comprised a dozen hikers, but Jeremy Hans tried to contact his It was only yesterday that they
The Sandton meeting was initi- tragedy, distraught family and half had opted out. wife. found Appels’s body. It appeared that
ated by Mitchell because she could friends have described how the trio One of them, Hillary Hill, yester- As two search and rescue parties she had fallen into some water.
catch a lift up to Joburg with her perished in the mountains above the day painfully described how her hik- were launched from Oudtshoorn, And Raubenheimer’s body was
mother. Cape Garden Route, the Swartberg. ing colleagues had died, based on Leon Hans was having to take a des- found at midday yesterday by chop-
Kruger said Mitchell was “deter- Charmaine Appels, 46, worked for what the survivors had told her. perate decision. per.
mined to get the job done”. He said a government Seta in Observatory. “They all started together on Sun- “He couldn’t move Baronese any Hill surmised that Appels must
a genuine hit man would have prob- Debbie Raubenheimer, 51, was day morning, everything went well. further. So he pushed her under a have tried to walk down the trail
ably asked for more money but the involved in catering. And Baronese “Deborah normally walks slowly. bush to protect her, and ran ahead to once Raubenheimer had died.
R2 000 she offered showed “how Jongbloed worked in the provincial Charmaine normally walks at the the hut. About 6km,” Hill said. “She would never have left her,”
cheap life is”. education department. back with her. The others went on There, he grabbed his elder she said.
“But she’s still young and you “She would have been 51 today,” ahead, then waited for them” – sev- brother and the pair ran back to Within the group, Jongbloed and
don’t know how young peoples’ said her only child, her son Oriel. eral times. Jongbloed together. Appels still had their most impres-
brains work. She’s still a child.” He described how his mother had But the weather had then taken a “But she was dead already. sive trek fresh in their memories –
Ernst was asked to assist with been part of a six-strong team of truly ferocious turn.
DID NOT MAKE IT: Rescuers recover Jeremy to resuscitate her, but she the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in
the sting because she is female and hikers who had embarked on a five- “It started to rain very hard, the
the first body yesterday. didn’t make it,” Hill said. January.
was able to make the arrest. Ernst day hike. wind came up, and then it started The snowstorm had been so “When I joined scouting 16 years
and Kruger work in the Rand- “On Thursday, Braai Day, they snowing,” Hill said. further back. severe, and the temperature so cold, ago, being the loving caring support-
fontein area. gathered at our house for a final At this point, Jeremy Hans and “At some point, Baronese could that she had died in a matter of ive parent she is she joined the scout-
Mitchell reportedly suffers from preparation,” he explained. Smith were together in the lead, not go any further. Leon told her to hours in broad daylight. ing movement too,” Jongbloed’s son
depression and has displayed suici- The other three in the party were with Leon Hans and Jongbloed leave her rucksack, and was basi- “Leon said he had never done a Oriel said of her hiking career.
dal tendencies, which helped her kindergarten teacher Linda Smith, together behind them, while Rauben- cally dragging her along through hike when it was so cold. If they had “There’s probably nothing that could
secure bail. 46, and brothers Leon and Jeremy heimer and Appels were together the snow. had to stick together, all of them have been done to prevent this.”

Jet-ski death and arrest end birthday trip, stun families

CULPABLE HOMICIDE: Andre Bester
MICHELLE PIETERSEN
TWO FAMILIES are shattered after
a birthday celebration in Cambodia
ended in the tragic death of one son
and the arrest of another.
Eleven days ago, Capetonian Paul
Hutchins had arranged a holiday for
a few friends, including Andre
Bester, to celebrate his birthday.
The group of friends were enjoy-
ing a jet-ski outing when Hutchins
and Bester’s machines collided.
Hutchins was killed and Bester was
subsequently arrested for his death.
A family member of Bester, who
was charged with culpable homicide
after the accident, said yesterday
both men were living in Cambodia
and worked at the same forestry
company.
Speaking to The Star last night,
Bester’s uncle, Nicolaas Bester, said
the family were “completely devas-
tated” when they received the news
that Andre had been arrested.
The 27-year-old from Pretoria has
been detained in the Sihanouk Ville
Prison in Cambodia, where he has
been held for 11 days since the
accident on September 18.
Nicolaas said Andre had been
working in Cambodia for just over
six months.
His employer had notified his
father, Jan Bester, of the accident
and his arrest.
Three days after the incident, his
father had travelled to the Asian
country to support his son.
Nicolaas said he had last spoken
to his brother on Sunday.
He said Jan had said he was
allowed to visit Bester daily to bring
him food, as very little was provided
for the prisoners.
He said Bester was in an
“extremely volatile” state as the con-
ditions of the prison were “terrible”.
“It’s not a nice situation. He is
locked up in the most terrible
circumstances in a combined cell
with a huge number of hardened
criminals, all mixed together,” he
said.
The family were “extremely
upset” as they were uncertain about
the justice system procedures in
Cambodia, Nicolaas said.
Although the hearing had been
postponed a few times before, they
were hoping that today’s bail hear-
ing would have a positive outcome.
The devastated family of
Hutchins, who was killed in the fatal
accident just three days after his
46th birthday, believe that the inci-
dent was a “freak accident”.
Hutchins’s nephew, Brett Thomp,
said his mother, grandmother and
aunt had left for Cambodia yesterday
to fetch his body and “pay tribute to
his life”.
Thomp said the family was
“incredibly emotional” about their
love one’s tragic death.
He said his grandmother’s heart
“was broken” when she heard her
son had died.
“She was very emotional… it’s
the second son that she has lost,”
said Thomp.
He added that Hutchins was the
life of the family, a colourful and
unique character, with a giving
heart, who “just made everyone feel
more positive”.
Thomp said the family was
expected to return to Cape Town on
October 6.

GOOD NEWS FOR SAA PASSENGERS

For the best ticket deals and widest INSIDE TODAY HERE’S
choice book online at
www.flysaa.com MATRIC MATTERS JOHNNY Page 31