Inge Lotz Murder: Initial statements and reactions
During the court summary in the Inge Lotz trial, Justice van Zyl was highly critical of the police handling of the case.
He called more than one of the cops testimony “unreliable”, “evasive” and “dishonest”. He also stated that some aspects of the investigation were “unscientific”, “incompetent” and “unprofessional”.
In addition he said that the state had in all respects failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Van der Vyver had a motive to kill Lotz or that he had been on the murder scene.
Van Zyl rejected the state’s circumstantial evidence of tension between the couple as a murder motive and Van der Vyver’s supposed “strange behaviour” before and after the murder, and the forensic evidence which the state said linked Van der Vyver to the scene.
These are all things we have covered in this blog in previous articles.
Judge van Zyl then pronounced that Fred van der Vyver was found not guilty.
Fred stood frozen for a moment before raising his head in what looked like a silent prayer of thanks and began crying. His supporters erupted into cheers of joy.
Jan and Juanita Lotz looked stunned at the other end of the courtroom as this chapter closed in the murder of their daughter. Many people have expressed their support and wishes to the Lotz family in this difficult time, including many of the supporters of this website.
Jan Lotz declined to comment and just said that they were both tired and just wanted to go home. Juanita Lotz smiled bravely as she said that she would accept the judgement of the court. They left shortly afterwards, supported by friends.
Speaking to the press, Fred van der Vyver said that he was looking forward to getting his life back together. When congratulated on the acquittal, Fred answered “This isn’t really something one can be congratulated on. I am just very relieved it is over.”
“It has been a trying time, but I don’t want to go into too much detail right now. I will comment on it later. I am just very relieved and grateful. I want to go back to work, but I haven’t really decided on my future yet.”
Louis van der Vyver, Fred’s father, declined to comment and said that defence attorney William Booth would make a statement on the family’s behalf.
Fred, his parents Carien and Louis, his brothers Dawie and Alfons hugged and kissed friends and relatives on the pavement opposite the court before moving on to their regular lunch restaurant.
Attorney William Booth made a short statement: “We’re all very relieved. It was a long court case. Emotionally, the family has gone through a great deal. Financially, it was also a major thing: They hired me, Barry Pienaar, Terry Price, Dup de Bruyn and, towards the end, Henri Viljoen – not to mention all the experts.”
He further added that police had a lot to learn from the case such as proper investigation, following proper procedure, abiding by the constitution and not homing in on one suspect once they thought they had a lead – in this case a fingerprint – but to investigate all their suspects properly.
Again these were some things covered earlier in this blog.
“We feel if the police had investigated properly, they would have caught the right culprit.” he said “We’re thinking of taking civil action against the state.”
There is however one question that still remains:
Who killed Inge Lotz?
