Original subtitles

(ethereal music)

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

(speaks in foreign language)

- And she said that she's scared

and then he must not lay next her and he was,

and honestly she said that don't touch me,

your hands are cold.

So I was thinking it's crazy.

I mean, how old is he and how old is Charmaine?

How could he do that?

But I never thought that it would go so far as it did.

(ethereal music)

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] Kriel is a small industrial town in Mpumalanga,

South Africa.

It's where Charmaine Maré spent her childhood.

It was a tough life.

Her poverty-stricken parents

battled to raise her and her brother.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [ Narrator ] School bus driver Hantie Venter

loved Charmaine like a daughter.

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

(speaks in foreign language)

(soft music)

- [Narrator] In this video clip

Charmaine plays with her brother and little John Pierre.

(children shouting)

Charmaine had left kriel just once in her life

on a holiday to Durban when she was 12 years old.

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] But in January 2013,

the teenager would again head towards the coast,

this time to settle in Cape Town

and create a better future for herself and her family.

(speaks in foreign language)

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Charmaine and Kristen White

were high school friends.

And when Kristen decided to relocate to Cape Town

to live with her mother,

she encouraged Charmaine to come with her.

- I decided to move to Cape Town to be with my mom

and just start off new, everything.

And then with the struggle that I saw Charmaine

and her family going through,

I felt like maybe if we take her with,

she could have a better lifestyle

and she could get a job or maybe finish school.

- I saw the circumstances of how she was living

and they had no electricity, things like that.

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] Charmaine was afraid to fly to Cape Town alone

and so she opted to travel with Kristen despite the fact

that she would be left in the care of a stranger

for several days.

That stranger was Johannes De Jager.

- I did speak to the mom and I explained to the mom

that we've already booked a boat cruise at the end of may,

the boat cruise has been booked.

So she must come down after

when we come back from the boat cruise.

Then they said no,

but Charmaine was too scared to fly alone,

she wants to fly down with Kristen.

So i explained to her mom,

then she'll have to stay with my boyfriend

because I have to go on the boat cruise,

which I promised the kids.

- [Narrator] The two teenagers arrived at their new home

in Kraaifontein, Cape Town on the 3rd of January, 2013.

- She was excited but in the same,

you can say she was scared.

Really she was, because she didn't know Cape Town

and she didn't know Kristens mother and Johannes De Jager,

so she didn't know them.

So she was very shy and scared

but I told her that it will be okay.

- Charmaine was very quiet in the beginning and everything.

But then, 'cause we bought her a lot of Christmas presents,

'cause I mean, they just arrived after Christmas.

And I bought my daughter and Nick and Charmaine

some Christmas presents and she was very shy,

didn't want to open them.

But then the next day she opened them, we went to the...

Took them all to the beach, we took them out that night.

They were fine, the atmosphere was nice.

- Everyday she spoke to me in the morning,

during the day, while I was at work.

Sometimes I get a BBM a message from her

and then I just reply.

And she just telling me that she and Kristen

is walking around in the house and watching TV

and making popcorn and stuff like that.

- She was a lovable child, very withdrawn.

But once you get to know her, she was bubbly, lovable.

Who my daughter were naughty, normal naughty.

They use to, like if I say to them,

go clean your room, they'll run and haha.

Then they go lie on their beads on their cell phones,

things like that.

They were very, they got on very well.

She was adorable girl.

- She was a very outgoing person.

She liked to do new things.

She's one of those, she'll rather spend her day

making someone else smile.

And she was just, she brought happiness to an atmosphere.

- I went to the school to try to get her into the school,

but the school refused.

They sayed, it's a problem child.

And then we got a interview at Usave.

Just get her into a job till she finds something else.

- But after Kristen left, everything changed.

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] When Carol, her daughter and Johannes' son

left on the planned boat cruise,

Charmaine was left in the care of

Carol Whites trusted boyfriend.

It was just four days after her arrival in Cape town.

De Jager was a mechanic who had lived with Carol

for four years.

Charmaine continued to message friends and family back home,

but alone with your Johannes,

the messages became ominous as her fear intensified.

- She said that Johannes is making,

she called it funny things.

She's write to me on BBM, he's doing funny things too.

He's asking of funny things and asking her,

can he go in the bathroom and wash her back?

And she said he said that he's not gonna give her any food

if she's not sleeping with him.

Then she said he's staying in her room

up until Kristen get back.

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] Charmaine became increasingly terrified.

She sought the help of a Kraaifontein estate agent

down the road.

She told him she was scared of the man she was staying with

and begged him for money so that she could return home.

Instead, he gave her his cell phone number

so she could contact him if she felt threatened.

She went back to the house.

(ethereal music)

On Wednesday,

two days after being left alone with Johannes,

she started recording Johannes sexual advances

on her cell phone.

She sent them to Nikita.

(speaks in foreign language)

(birds chirping)

(engine rumbles)

(speaks in foreign language)

- I phoned to De Jager's cell phone

and I asked him can I...

He asked me, do I want to speak to Charmaine?

I said no, I want to speak to you.

And I spoke to him and then I told him

I'm Charmaine's mother and Charmaine is complaining

he's touching and making sexual advantages to her,

I would say.

And then he said no, I'm not doing that,

and I won't touch your child and he was just laughing.

He made a joke out of it.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] It was obvious that Johannes was lying

and Charmaine was in grave danger.

- I phoned the Kraiifontein police station four times,

they said they will send out a van

to come and pick Charmaine up

and take her to the police station

and then they will give me a call

and I will arrange a ticket for her to get back to Joburg.

And they never phoned me and they never reached out.

(speaks in foreign language)

- I asked Charmaine to look out the window

because she said she couldn't get out of the house.

I don't know why, but she said she couldn't go out.

I asked her to just check the road,

maybe if the police will come,

she can just open the window and call them more.

But she said there was no police.

It's just horrible.

The police really, because I've told them she's 16 years old

and this guy's making sexual advantages to her.

Why didn't they go?

They don't care, I feel like they don't care.

- [Narrator] Charmaine took refuge in drawing

while waiting endlessly for Kristen, Carol

and De Jager's son to return from their boat cruise.

(speaks in foreign language)

(soft music)

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] This drawing of a crying child

is believed to be her last.

- When her phone was off,

I realized that Charmaine is not that kind of person,

she won't put off her phone.

Her phone is her life.

So if her battery was low, she would have put it on charge.

So then I got worried about nine or 10 O'clock

when she didn't answer me.

When I gave her a call, it went on voicemail.

I left a few voicemail messages

and she didn't get back to me,

so then I knew that there was something wrong.

(engine rumbling)

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

(ethereal music)

- On January the 11th, Kristen, her mother Carol

and Nick, Johannes son

we're coming into the Cape Town Harbor to dock.

They were expecting to see both Johannes and Charmaine.

- We had no signal or anything.

To be docked on the Friday morning,

just after five, we started to get signal.

My daughter was outside and I was sitting

packing all the stuff, the last bits that we had to pick

and my daughter just came in,

she was hysterical and I couldn't calm her down.

And I'm saying, what's going on, what's going on?

And then that's when she says to me mommy,

she's just got a BBM to say that Johannes

is trying to sleep with Charmaine and sitting next to her,

and Charmaine's scared.

So we both tried to phone them, but every time we phone,

we get cut off or no one was answering.

And we just carried on phoning,

we didn't know what was going on.

- [Narrator] When they docked, Charmaine wasn't there.

- Johannes was there alone.

We asked Johannes where is Charmaine?

So he says no.

Apparently she went to go and buy cigarettes that morning

and she didn't come back on time,

and he went to look for her and couldn't find her.

So he left because of the traffic,

otherwise he's going to be late because of the traffic.

So when we were in the car,

my daughter and I spoke to him and said listen,

but we got BBMs you tried to sleep with her and is it true?

And he said no.

He denied all allegations that he tried to sleep with her.

And then when we got home, Charmaine wasn't there,

so we went driving around Kraaifontein.

We went to places that her and my daughter used to go to,

we couldn't find her anywhere.

We went to every shop to ask if they'd seen her

and no one had seen her.

And then they all went to the police station.

Johannes, he's son, the neighbor, Sonya, Kristen.

And I stayed at home just in case she came to the house.

And we reported her missing.

Then we still drive around at night looking for her.

The next morning,

my daughter and I went and got a lot of flyers made

and we put out flyers.

Then I was, I didn't know where to turn,

who to speak to, what to do.

So I went back to the police station

and I asked them to please let me speak to someone.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, Johannes De Jager

was desperately trying to cover his tracks.

- Saturday afternoon, we went riding around again.

We put up more flyers where we could.

And then that night we got a call.

Kristen said it's from her auntie,

is to say that Charmaine's at a bus station.

I phoned the police again

and I asked the police to please come and help us.

They came to us and I explained the whole situation to them.

And they said no, but there's too many bus stations.

They can't go from bus station to bus station.

- [Narrator] The SMS from Charmaine's phone

informing her loved ones that she was returning home

was in fact sent by Johannes.

- Then the police phoned us and asked us

to please come down to the police station.

And we went to the police station and there was about five,

seven of them all asking us questions.

Why did we put up the flyers, who put up the flyers?

We actually thought we were in trouble for putting up flyers

the way they were going on,

but they said they were watching our body languages.

And then in the end, I don't know what I said.

Johannes said something and I said,

but it's all your fault.

You tried to sleep with a poor little girl.

And that's when they took Johannes away

and then it all started.

- [Narrator] At that point, Carol and her daughter

still believed that Charmaine was alive

and perhaps making her way back to hometown Kriel.

- One policemen or Colonel, I don't know

came in and said to us,

they just wanna give us her condolences.

So we all looked at her because no ones,

and then the one inspector said,

but we haven't told them yet.

And that's when they told us now that they found a body

and they asked my daughter about the belly ring, earring.

(speaks in foreign language)

- They phoned me on my birthday

to tell me that Charmaine, they found her

and she's been murdered.

At that time I was working at the school,

I just left everything and I just fell to my knees

and I cried.

And then my boss said I could go home

because she could see I'm not,

and I even left my job because I couldn't concentrate.

I was just thinking about her the whole time

and I felt guilty.

(speaks in foreign language)

- Of course I didn't think it was Johannes who did it.

I thought maybe Charmaine was just

deciding to get back home and she went to buy a bus ticket

or whatever, and then something happened to her.

Maybe someone took her phone and killed her.

I didn't think it was Johannes doing it.

I didn't expect that.

- I really don't know how i felt.

I just couldn't believe it,

I just couldn't believe it.

At that moment you thought you were walking in a nightmare

and someone was gonna say hey, wake up.

And then they asked me, can I go search my car?

They went and searched my car,

they asked me to search my house.

That all came to my house

and searched my house with the dogs

and I had to take out all Johannes stuff out,

throw it on the floors for him.

And that's when we found his work jacket

and we gave the work jacket to the police

and then the police found her cell phone.

- [Narrator] Charmaine's cell phone

was in De Jager's possession,

and the focus of the police investigation turned on him.

Gruesome details of Charmaine's horror murder

would now come to light.

On the 15th of January,

police seized De Jager's Ford Mustang and the cell phone,

he was arrested on the same day.

While police had found a burnt torso in an open field,

they believed it was the teenagers,

they still needed to find the rest of Charmaine's

dismembered body.

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] Court reporter Tanya Menges

has been covering cases like this for the past decade.

(ethereal music)

- So he casually testified in court

how he just took a knife, cut through the sinews

of the elbow and the knees.

And then use the tree cutter to get through the sinews.

And after that you can just pull the bone out,

no problem.

So that's how he cut off the knees and the elbows

in order to get the body out.

So he put both the knees in one box,

put the lower arms in another box.

Took the body, with petrol and burnt the torso.

The State said he burned the torso

in order to hide evidence that he had raped her.

- [Narrator] As search of De Jager's garage

and they found her arms hidden in a box under the car.

De Jager agreed to point out to police

where he had discarded her body parts.

He had used his motorbike to transport her legs

in a backpack and then discarded them off the M2 highway.

Her torso was found here behind this wall.

He had doused it with Petrol and set it alight.

(ethereal music)

He confessed that he had indeed cut her up

using a tree cutter.

But claimed she'd fallen in the bathroom,

hit her head on the bath and died.

In a panic, he said he had hidden her body in the drain.

When her body began decomposing, he decided to remove it.

Swollen, he said he had to cut it up with a tree cutter

to get it out of the drain.

- if she fell on the bath, why didn't you call an ambulance?

Why didn't you call the police?

Why do you put someone in a drain?

A normal person doesn't react like that,

it just doesn't make any sense.

- [ Narrator ] He denied raping her,

but admitted it was his voice on her cell phone recordings.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [ Narrator ] He also told the court

that Charmaine had told him

she had been raped before and was a lesbian.

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

- I think he's crazy, really.

I don't think he's human.

Especially like that, he said like

it's the same as cutting up a goat.

There's no humanity to him, he's not like a human.

- [ Narrator ] Nikita made the journey to Cape Town

to see De Jager for herself.

(ethereal music)

In court, she hoped to find closure.

- I've got mixed emotions. I really hate him

but in a matter of fact, I feel sorry for him

because he's messed his whole life.

What about his kids, what about Carol?

When I look at him, especially his hands.

I can't believe that those two hands

did that to Charmaine.

(speaks foreign language)

(ethereal music)

- In the beginning when the case started,

he was very, very aggressive towards journalists.

He would smack at the photographers

and he actually hit one.

And as the case progressed, he obviously realized no oh,

or his lawyer told him, please don't.

So then he, I would go up to him and say,

what's the deal, huh.

Can you smile with me for a photo and he would.

The case went on for about six months.

In that time he kind of relaxed with journalists

and kind of realize in that sense look,

there's nothing I can do about this.

But in the beginning, I mean he's smacked me without.

You can see that there's the aggressive man in there

who had a temper.

And I think when Charmaine didn't want to give him

the sexual attention he wanted, he just lashed out.

- [Narrator] For Carol White

who'd been living with him for four years,

discovering that her boyfriend was a cold blooded murderer

was devastating.

- You ever feel you're walking, but you're not there?

You blame yourself, you wish to God you saw something

or why didn't I notice, why didn't I do this.

Why didn't I even notice he was that type of person.

I don't know.

You don't know where to go.

You have to go to work,

you got to keep strong for your child.

(indistinct).

Something you just can't explain, you got to live with it.

- It's scary to know we've been living with him.

He hasn't shown any sides like that.

None of us realized anything,

and then this is how it turns out,

it's actually scary to know we lived with him.

- When I first met Johannes we got on very well,

we used to go way weekends.

He used to belong to a car club,

we were always away with the car club.

He was very outgoing, fun, loving person.

I just don't understand.

- [ Narrator ] De Jager was charged with the murder

and rape of Charmaine Marie

and in another shock for those close to him,

he was also charged with the rape and murder

of an 18 year old prostitute, Hiltina Alexander in 2008.

His DNA had been found under her fingernails.

- He explained his DNA under her nails by saying

when he took her to the other Johannes,

some fictional character who he says, wanted a prostitute.

She played with his private parts while they were driving.

So he has to explain a way

things that are valid, valid evidence.

- [Narrator] In April 2014,

De Jager was found guilty of all charges.

(speaks in foreign language)

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] Brigadier Gerard Labuschagne,

A police forensic psychologist testified in the trial

that De Jager should be classified, a serial killer.

- We typically say two murders

on at least two separate occasions,

and there's more of an inner psychological drive

to commit a murder.

Which is why we wouldn't for example

call a cash and transit robber

who on two separate cash and transit robberies

happens to kill a security guard,

we wouldn't really refer to them as a serial murderer

in a sense of how we understand the word.

Because there the motivation is the obtaining of money.

The killing of their god is really a stepping stone

to them obtaining what they want.

So as a result of there being two separate murders,

in De Jagers case we felt quite comfortable

that also in both cases,

there was an underlying sexual element to it.

There was no practical purpose for him

to kill those individuals.

We were quite happy to say that he then falls

into within the definition of a serial murderer.

(indistinct)

- [ Narrator ] De Jager was sentenced to three life terms

that will run concurrently.

The judge described him as lacking in remorse

and said his demeanor was so arrogant,

it boarded on contempt of court.

- I think he thinks he's a very, very clever guy.

And he was caught out by a young girl

who wouldn't give up and who knew,

I have to get some evidence of him.

And she didn't only keep it on the phone,

that's why he took her phone.

She sent those recordings to friends and family.

'Cause when he initially took the phone,

he threw it out in a field and he went to pick it up again

because he didn't know how

to get rid of the recordings on the phone.

That's why I keep the phone.

And that is what got him.

- What we experience with serial murderers

is they're obviously going to have a lack of empathy

for their victims.

They might be able to display empathy in other contexts

but for their victims,

unfortunately that's a totally different category of person

for them.

They might have no respect for their victims

or not even see the necessarily as human beings.

So the fact that over the days leading up to the murder

that he harassed her, even terrorized her

if anyone wants to use that word.

I mean isn't really surprising.

- [Narrator] For De Jagers friends and family,

the revelations were staggering.

- Stable employment, people like them,

family and friends don't pick up any strange behaviors,

et cetera.

So in that way he is very similar

to quite number of our serial murders.

But what we also have to understand is

a serial murderer is not just one concept,

these guys are not all the same.

Their personality is probably very,

almost as much as the general population's

personality varies.

And that's very difficult again for people to understand

'cause they want serial murders to all be a certain way

and it's a way that we can easily identify

and pick up sort of certain behaviors to warn ourselves.

But the majority are very boring and mundane individuals

who are not particularly intelligent,

who go out and commit crimes

very often because of poor policing in many circumstances.

And that really allows them to get away with their crimes

as opposed to being sort of these great criminal geniuses.

So in that way yes,

we've seen the De Jagers quite a few times before

in our other serial murderers.

- [Narrator] It's left those

who were once close to De Jager shattered.

- Well, we don't trust no one as now,

I don't even tell people we are live.

Any more close friends.

We were threatened in the beginning.

Bad colored guys coming to my house from Paul's mall

telling me I must forgive Johannes,

the devil was in him and.

So I moved from my house,

now I don't tell anyone where I live.

My daughter's taken it bad.

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] Kristen moved back to kriel

after the murder to live with her father.

She spends her free time drawing in memory of her friend.

- I don't trust people anymore so easily.

I think that's also an eye opener

because you never know who you're trying to trust,

and also it's made me more cautious in life.

I used to always think of the bad that's happened,

but now I just think of all the smiles and laughs we shared,

and I actually wish it wouldn't have happened to her.

(ethereal music)

- [ Narrator ] Charmaine's mother was only able to face

her daughter's killer once on judgment day

in the Western Cape High Court.

(indistinct)

The trip to Cape Town was difficult for her,

but she was determined to look

Johannes De Jager in the eyes.

(speaks in foreign language)

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Charmaine's parents live out the long days

in kriel in a tiny rent free, Wendy house.

They depend on the kindness of the community

to help them survive.

- If there's no food, there's no food.

That was a big wishes to just help with payments.

And you will get her crying at night

because there's no food and she's worried,

but at least the brother is old enough now

to go his own way.

And at night he will bring maybe six buns

or half loaf of bread and that's what they will eat.

So it's just going the way it was before Charmaine's death,

It's just the same.

Her father is very old,

he's not young anymore.

And if he's doing car watch,

and if you stop there where he's turning doing car watch

you will always see him looking into heaven.

And then he will say (indistinct)

even a birds flying or star,

or then he will say Charmaine.

And I will see Charmaine one day and you can see the hurt,

you can see it.

And Charmaine's mother she's not healthy anymore,

she's very sick.

And every day if you go to her, she's crying

and she's got a big photo Charmaine hanging on the wall

and she takes flowers everyday,

put flowers there and kiss the photo.

And she still believes that Charmaine will return,

she's not gone.

(ethereal music)

- [Narrator] Each week,

Nikita takes them to Charmaine's grave

to pay their respects.

(ethereal music)

They could not afford the trip to Cape Town

to witness De Yager being sentenced.

So instead, they've visited Charmaine's grave.

(birds chirping)

It's the 27th of May, 2014 and De Yager is sentenced

to life behind bars.

The news filters back to Charmaine's family.

(speaks in foreign language)

(ethereal music)

(engine rumbles)

(speaks in foreign language)

(soft music)

- [Narrator] Charmaine's loved ones

are left with just their memories

and the horror of what happened to her.

(soft music)

- I wish I could have stopped her

or I wish I could have come here.

When she starts telling me that he's doing stuff like that,

I wish I could come to her and just be with her

so that she can't be scared anymore.

- [Narrator] The state recommended that De Yager

never be considered eligible for parole.

- A serial murderer cannot be rehabilitated.

The primary reason why, is we do not know why one individual

becomes a serial murderer.

They have just as varied backgrounds and personalities

as the rest of society does.

And without knowing why, it's difficult to understand

what can we do to change them.

Also because there's very often a lack of remorse

and that remorse is really what motivates us to change.

If you don't feel you've done something wrong,

you have no reason to change.

And the great difficulty is that

in the same way that they appear very normal outside

when they're committing their crimes,

which is why everybody's surprised

eventually who it is that gets arrested,

they behave just as normally inside prison.

So your prison, internal prison behavior

which is often what people judge you on

when it comes to parole is not a good benchmark

for deciding whether a serial murderer

is no longer a danger to society.

- I think if that man's let out again,

he would do it again.

And I don't believe that these were the only people

he murdered.

- [Narrator] For those who love Charmaine,

it's still inconceivable that she fell into the clutches

of a serial killer.

Her grave is now of a constant reminder

that her family could not help her

in the days leading up to her death.

- My house is quiet because Charmaine was the one that

was always making jokes,

and especially liked to make coffee.

Every 10 minutes, she would get a cup of coffee next to you.

And even my children, they really loved her.

And when they got to bath, they would ask Charmaine

to bath them, then Charmaine must lay next to them,

Charmaine must put on the DVDs for them.

Charmaine must everything, so it's quiet.

There is no life , it's like dead.

(speaks in foreign language)

- That girl was clever, she got him.

She's (indistinct) in the grave.

(ethereal music)