Update Warning: Graphic content
KNYSNA NEWS - Last week 28-year-old Rolin Moos was deemed, on a balance of probabilities, to have killed his mother Anna Moos (59) and was ordered to be detained in the Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital.
The decision was based on details that came to light in the Knysna Magistrate's Court of how Rolin brutally killed his mother.
The court heard that Moos hit his mother over the head with a golf club, slit her throat and gruesomely dismembered her before flushing her organs down the toilet and trying to hide from the community and the police in the bushes around Hornlee.
He even considered eating her organs before electing to dispose of them instead.
Anna Moos was last seen alive on Friday 7 January, and a member of the community only found her body four days later, on Tuesday 11 January.
"The body of the deceased was found in the bushes after the neighbour's son saw it while walking through the bushes. He got a stinky smell and on further investigation noticed clothing in the bushes and went home to inform his father. His father went to the scene where he identified the clothing as that of the deceased, and he contacted the police," said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.
Anna Moos' mutilated body
The scene that lay in wait for police was enough to haunt anyone. According to Ntabazalila, Anna Moos' body was recovered with the head and the left forearm cut off, and several of her chest and abdominal organs had been removed.
Ntabazalila pointed out four chief post mortem findings on Moos' body: Advanced decomposition of the body with severe maggot infestation; the head was severed through the neck and the left arm was cut off mid-forearm; a large area of skin, subcutaneous tissue and ribs had been removed after death from the chest wall and abdomen.
The chest organs and most of the abdominal organs were absent and there were multiple stab wounds on the right thigh that penetrated the muscle. The post mortem mutilation and decomposition was so severe that the forensic pathologist could not determine the exact cause of death, Ntabazalila explained.
Rolin Moos' arrest
Three days after his mother's body was recovered, Rolin Moos was found and detained by members of the community before he was handed over to police.
"The accused further admitted to a member of the community that he murdered his mother after he was taken to the Knysna Provincial Hospital for treatment as he was assaulted by the community. The accused again confessed to the investigating officer that he committed the murder after his rights were fully explained to him," Ntabazalila explained.
Unfit to stand trial
While this might have seemed like an open and shut case due to his confessions, it was far from it. Rolin Moos had undergone psychiatric evaluation in 2015 after he assaulted his mother, but was deemed unfit to stand trial and ultimately went back to live with his mother in their home in Hornlee, up until he killed her in January.
Due to his past mental health issues, the court ordered that Moos again undergo psychiatric evaluation at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital in order to determine two things – did Moos have the mental and criminal capacity to stand trial, and did Moos have the mental and criminal capacity to be fully aware of his actions when killing his mother?
"The panel comprising of two specialist psychiatrists and a clinical psychologist made the finding that the accused is not fit to stand trial... and further that he was not able to appreciate the wrongfulness of the alleged offence," Ntabazalila explained.
Thereafter the case was referred back to the Knysna Magistrate's Court for enquiry into the case to determine whether or not, on a balance of probabilities*, Moos killed his mother.
The enquiry
This enquiry started on Monday 5 September and carried over to Tuesday 6 September.
"The state called the investigation officer, Sgt Williams, as the only witness to convince the court that it was the accused who committed the murder. The state's evidence was based on circumstantial evidence as there were no eyewitnesses that witnessed the incident," Ntabazalila said.
After the investigation officer presented their evidence, the state closed its case and the defence led no evidence in their case and therefore also closed their case.
"The court then found that there is sufficient evidence including strong circumstantial evidence that proved that the accused killed the deceased, his mother, on a balance of probabilities," Ntabazalila explained.
"The court ordered that the accused be detained at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital as a psychiatric patient ('state patient'), in terms of section 77(6)(a)(1)(aa) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977."
In a criminal case where the accused stands trial, they must be proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. However, in cases such as this the court must, on a balance of probabilities, determine whether the accused committed the act in question, and if he should be detained in a psychiatric hospital.
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