News from Southern Africa & Namibia: Namibia: B1 Butcher

Friday 10 September 2021

Namibia: B1 Butcher - an unknown serial killer

B1 Butcher

The B1 Butcher is an unknown serial killer in Namibia. The B1 Butcher murdered at least five women between 2005 and 2007, with all murders related to the national road B1.

In 2007, a German-born Namibian was accused of rape, arrested, and later linked to these unsolved murders. However, he was after a long detention acquitted for lack of evidence. In 2008 a man who committed suicide was implicated as the series of murders ended in 2007, but the connection could not be conclusively proven.

Name
The B1 Butcher got its name from the Namibian media, because all of their murders victims have been found in close proximity to the Namibian National Road B1, which crosses the country from north to south. The "butcher" part of the name stems from the professional way in which the bodies were dismembered.

Murders
Body parts were found in June and July 2007 in the Khomas Region along the B1 in the greater Windhoek area between Rehoboth and Okahandja. These body parts were wrapped in garbage bags and belonged to two different women. As far back as 2005 two similar unexplained murders of women occurred, those two murders have subsequently also been blamed on the B1 Butcher.

The head and an arm of the so far last victim were found in August 2007, further north on the B1 between Windhoek, Okahandja. Further body parts of the same victim were discovered in September 2007 near Grootfontein in the Otjozondjupa Region. This woman has never been identified. Police took this sequence of events as a clue that the murderer's center of life might have moved from Windhoek further northwards.

In October 2007, investigations were helped by three senior serial murder detectives from the Republic of South Africa. Still the murder series was never solved, and it is believed that it might never be solved.

Victims
All five of the B1 Butcher victims were young or middle-aged women. Two of the five women killed (both found in 2007) could not be identified. The other three women are Juanita Mabula (21 years, murdered in 2005), Melanie Janse (22 years, 2005) and Sanna Helena ?Garoes (36 years, 2007).

All murdered women were coloured Namibians, each of the three identified victims was fluent in Afrikaans, Damara, or both. In addition, all victims' body parts showed signs of freezing or refrigeration, suggesting that they were in some sort of cold storage. The method of killing, however, was different: Janse was strangled, Mabula was hit on the head with a blunt object.

At least two of the three identified victims clearly were prostitutes, working in Windhoek's downtown Ausspannplatz area. Two of the victims, Janse and ?Garoes, apparently knew each other well.

Suspects
In August 2007, the German citizen Heinz Knierim was arrested because he was suspected of having raped a 29-year-old Namibian near Windhoek the previous month. He was also said to have tried to subsequently strangle the woman. Knierim denied all allegations. In February 2010, he was acquitted for lack of evidence and released from custody. Knierim sued for damages against the Namibian government due to his ordeal of having been accused to be the B1 Butcher.

In 2008 Hans Husselmann from Rehoboth took his life after being implicated in the murders. He had served a life sentence for two murders before, and was only released in 2004. Although ?Garoes' DNA was found in Husselmann's flat and Husselmann's DNA was found on a letter to the Police concerning the Mabula murder, evidence was inconclusive. At that time, suspicions arose that the B1 Butcher might not be one single person but rather one "lead actor" and several copycats.

Aftermath and consequences
In July 2007, women from Windhoek, Rehoboth and Tsumis Park published a joint open letter to the B1 Butcher to provide information on to the still missing body parts for decent burial of the murder victims. He was also told to hand himself over to the Police.

In 2010, a human head and an arm were discovered on a farm in Rehoboth, raising fear that the Butcher might be active again. A connection to the murders of the B1 Butcher in this was, however, not considered likely because it did not show many of the previous similarities: The body parts were not found near a highway, and were burnt instead of frozen.