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In an extremely brief court appearance today, the charges against Nico Venter for the murder of Anika Smit were withdrawn by the prosecutor.

Prosecutor Tanya Carstens told Magistrate Barend van Schalkwyk the State was withdrawing all charges. She gave no reasons for this at all.

Nico Venter’s lawyer, Gerard Pretorius, also mentioned that he was clueless as to why the charges were withdrawn.

One has to wonder if the police had focused their investigation on the first person who crossed their paths – much like the police did with Fred van der Vyver in the Inge Lotz murder.

Police have been very close-lipped about the investigation, only mentioning previously that they were searching for a second unnamed suspect.

We were also told that super-cop Piet Byleveld was working the case, but he has since retired and there was no word on his thoughts on the case.

This all leaves us the following questions:

Who killed Anika?
Why did they kill her?
Are we ever going to see the person responsible brought to trial?
Have the police done the best job possible on this case?

Tags: Anika Smit Murder, Crime by James
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I wonder what is going on with the Anika Smit murder case.

Way back in May, her ex-boyfriend, Nico Venter, was arrested by the police. He was then released on R10 000 bail. This left relatives and friends angry and unhappy.

Johan Smit was a bit more down-to-earth. When commenting on the bail, he said:

“People say you are innocent until the court finds you guilty. I assume if he has not been convicted yet, I must accept the court’s decision”.

We discovered that Nico Venter was questioned by police on March 12 and that later in March he was asked to go back to the police offices. On legal advice he refused and was arrested later that day. He was later released to appear in court.

The following day we are told that the police are searching for a second suspect. They did not name the suspect or provide any other information. Now, months later, a second arrest is yet to be forthcoming.

A week or so later on March 21 it was reported that super-sleuth Brigadier Piet Byleveld had been called in by local police to assist in the case. He has not discussed why he was being brought into the case.

What is strange to me is that Nico Venter was granted bail and then Piet Byleveld is brought in on the case. I have a number of questions:
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Tags: Anika Smit Murder, Crime by James
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