POSSIBLE NINTH GAUTENG GAY MURDER VICTIM
The body count continues to rise. Police seem helpless to act as yet another gay man is found murdered in his Johannesburg home.
Shain Germaner from Eye Witness News reported on Thursday that police are investigating the murder of 47-year-old Dr Carl Mischke, a law professor at the University of Johannesburg.
Mischke’s naked body was found on Monday in his Norwood home. He was face down in bed and had been stabbed multiple times.
It appears, as with most of the other cases, that he had invited his killer or killers into his house.
On his Twitter profile, Mischke described himself as “Complex but good-intentioned. Not single anymore (or am I?) Edges blunt and dull”.
Germaner reported that police have confirmed that Mischke’s murder will be investigated by the same team that is investigating other similar gay murders.
Police have previously warned that a gang may be targeting gay men, both in Gauteng and Cape Town. They believe that, at least in some of the cases, the criminals may have used chat rooms or online dating services to target their gay victims.
Three men have been arrested in one of the cases; the 2011 murder of Orange Grove resident Barney Van Heerden (39). Police believe that the suspects may be connected to other similar murders.
The men, Maxwell Nyathi, Mthokozisi Ndlovu and Themba Maseko, were arrested in November last year and are expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court today.
The magistrate presiding over the case has threatened to release them if forensic evidence was not brought forward by the state at today’s hearing.
The murders of gay men in Gauteng began with Manolis Veloudos, who was killed in April 2010. He was followed by Jim Cathels in Berea in December 2010; Oscar O’Hara (33) in May 2011; a 47-year-old un-named landlord in Northcliff in August 2011; Siphiwe Selby Nhlapo (36) in Soweto in September 2011; Barney van Heerden (39) in Orange Grove, also in September 2011; HIV/Aids activist and television presenter Jason Wessenaar (39) in his Pretoria West home in December 2011; and Rulov Senekal in February 2012.
Two gay men have also been murdered in Cape Town under similar circumstances.
In January, Graham Collop (50) was found dead in his ransacked flat in Plumstead, while in March, Graham Flax (65) was killed in his Sea Point apartment building.
Pretoria-based LGBT health and well-being group OUT has warned gay men to be wary of who they allow into their homes.
OUT’s Director, Dawie Nel, has accused the police of being unmotivated to solve the cases because of the victims’ sexuality.
I dont want to be disrespectful but this guy was into heavy drugs and pretty kinky stuff. The fact that this didnt happen sooner is more of a suprise
He didn’t have to killed because he was into kinky stuff. Half the country is probably on some drug. Your comment disgusts me.
How can you justify such a brutal killing by using kink or drugs as an excuse no one deserve to die this way and what about the people left behind?
Killing a person should never be condoned, but drugs, risky sex partners ect, opens up a whole new can of worms you can get yourself into.
No one deserves to die cause they like kinky stuff or drug addicts. Shut up if you dont have anything to say.
I am part of his family. Yes, no one is perfect and we all have our vices. “Not surprised” did you know him? You cannot excuse your disrespectful comment with “I don’t want to be disrespectful…” You were. A man has died and there are people who are very broken about it. He hasn’t even been buried yet and you say stuff like that.