The ongoing saga of Werner de Jager, embroiled in a legal storm over the alleged murder of his wife, Liezel de Jager, has taken a shocking twist with revelations that might see him facing two additional murder charges.
State preparing to add two more murder counts to Werner de Jager charge sheet
De Jager, previously charged with the murder of his spouse, is now implicated in a separate incident—a fatal car accident on the N1 highway near Kroonstad, which resulted in the deaths of 54-year-old Linda Cornelia Eales and her mother Berniece, aged 84, in April 2023.
According to reports, investigators probed De Jager’s degree of premeditation after it was determined Eales’s Toyota Fortuner was rear-ended by De Jager’s Honda sedan, sending it on a fatal sprawl.
De Jager sustained minor injuries from the accident and was released from hospital days later.
Initially considered for culpable homicide, the charges have been escalated to murder by the Director of Public Prosecutions, amid assertions that De Jager, who suffers from dementia, recklessly chose to drive on the day of the accident.
The intricacies of the legal process came to the forefront during De Jager’s bail application hearing, on Tuesday, which saw an unexpected pause.
The courtroom drama unfolded over two days, with passionate pleas from both the state and defence. However, the proceedings hit a snag due to loadshedding, delaying a definitive ruling on De Jager’s bail.
The magistrate’s probing into De Jager’s recent past and movements post-murder heightened the anticipation, with the community’s outcry against bail echoing outside the courthouse.
The gravity of Werner de Jager’s situation is compounded by allegations of a meticulously planned murder of his wife, Liezel.
The state’s argument hinges on De Jager’s financial manoeuvres preceding the tragedy, including taking out life policies in Liezel’s name and altering her will to position himself as the sole beneficiary.
These actions, coupled with De Jager’s intimate relationship with another individual, lay the groundwork for a narrative of premeditated murder, challenging his defence’s portrayal of the evidence as circumstantial and attacking the investigation’s pace.
The decision has now been deferred to Thursday, 22 February 2024.
