You can listen to the latest episode of Unsolved Murders SA: The murder of Juandré Kidson on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Crime opportunity theory is based on the fundamental suggestion that offenders make rational choices and thus choose targets that offer a high reward with little effort and risk.
S W Boys Smith, the UK’s former director of police policy, once wrote that opportunity is a third principal cause of crime.
This theory relies heavily on the notion that the occurrence of a crime depends on two things: the presence of at least one motivated offender who is ready and willing to engage in a crime and the conditions of the environment in which the offender is situated.
Marcus Felson and Ronald V Clarke, two highly esteemed professors of criminology, present ten principles of crime opportunity theory in their research paper, Opportunity Makes the Thief: A Practical Theory for Crime Prevention (I highly recommend you give this a read).
- Opportunities play a role in causing all crime
- Crime opportunities are highly specific
- Crime opportunities are concentrated in time and space
- Crime opportunities depend on everyday movements of activity
- One crime produces opportunities for another
- Some products offer more tempting crime opportunities
- Social and technological changes produce new crime opportunities
- Crime can be prevented by reducing opportunities
- Reducing opportunities does not usually displace crime
- Focused opportunity reduction can produce wider declines in crime
Here is a quote from Felson and Clarke on how settings, or the environment, plays a critical role in the occurrence of crime, a factor that is at the centre of this episode:
“Individual propensities towards crime and criminogenic features of settings, while both important, are not equally simple to analyse. The usual approach – discovering who has greater personal propensities towards crime and why – is a more formidable task. Statistical analyses to unravel individual causes are highly complicated and seem to go in circles. Articulate essays about the causes of crime may persuade one group of readers but seem to make little headway in persuading others. We see no immediate prospect of success in resolving the many controversies about what causes individual crime propensities.
“On the other hand, theories about how settings cause crime are more successful, not only in gaining empirical verification but in reaching consensus. For example, we know that large pubs with many drunken young males jostling one another produce more fights. We know that the layout of certain parks or streets invites prostitution and drug dealing. We understand some of the design and management principles that help to make public housing insecure or safe. Even when there is room for controversy and refinement, theory.”
Felson, M, Clarke, R, Opportunity Makes the Thief: A Practical Theory for Crime Prevention.
There are three popular opportunity theories that examine crime from different perspectives:
- The Routine Activity approach assumes that for crimes to occur, there must be a convergence in time and space of three minimal elements: a likely offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian against crime.
- The crime pattern theory tells us that the manner in which people and things move in space and time can culminate in the occurrence of a crime. This theory suggests that the likelihood of crime increases in accordance with the victim and offender’s daily interactions with the environment.
- The rational choice perspective proposes that offending is a purposive behaviour designed to benefit the offender in some way.
“To understand crime choices, one must always analyze highly specific categories of offence. The reason for this specificity is that offences have such different purposes and are influenced by very different situational factors.
“For example, car thieves are of several diff e rent kinds, including joyriders, people stealing components or things left in the car, those stealing cars for resale or to dismantle for spare parts, those wanting a car to use for another crime, and those simply wanting to drive home.
“This is not to say that those who commit one type of car theft never commit another; it merely states that car theft for one purpose is quite different from car theft for an entirely different purpose and must be analysed accordingly.”
Felson, M, Clarke, R.
Who was Juandré Kidson?
Juandré Kidson was a 30-year-old father of one and a native of Rustenburg, a city situated at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range in the North West province.
His parents, whose identities have been withheld for safety reasons, moved to the North West metropolis in the early 90s and found a haven in a city that boomed in mining activity.
Juandré was the eldest of three boys.
We were fortunate enough to interview one of Juandré’s siblings, Marco Kidson, who reflected on his childhood growing up under the wings of his ever-protective eldest brother.
“We had quite a close relationship. Juandré was a very God-fearing man and he always tried to help me with staying on the right path. We liked to go fishing together. That was where we bonded the most, is when we’d go fishing together. He always wanted to take me hunting. This year was the year we were supposed to go hunt together.”
Marcus Kidson.
Christianity played a crucial role in Jaundré’s upbringing. As the eldest, he often preached the Word to Marco and the last born and always used the teachings of the Holy Bible to correct his brothers.
Juandré was an adventurous kid, and, naturally, his thirst for discovery always placed him in the line of danger.
“We always made jokes, saying that he was the child always getting in accidents because he had multiple injuries, jumping through windows on a trampoline, motorbike accidents, car accidents. He was very adventurous and he lived life 100%”
Marcus Kidson
Juandré attended Rustenberg Christian Academy Primary School and later enrolled at Rustenburg High School, where he excelled in IT.
According to Marco, his eldest brother was so good at the subject that he earned a decent income repairing computers in his community.
Juandré matriculated in 2010, and while his peers pursued higher education, he continued thriving in his work as a freelance computer repairman.
Our research indicates that Juandré used his specialities in IT for six years after he matriculated. Thereafter, in 2016, he established Aquam Vivam, a company that sold purified water and plastic bottle screenprinting services to businesses in Rustenburg and Brits.
According to Marco, Juandré wasn’t really into dating. Sure, he was interested in women, but he never indulged too much in relationships.
“He always searched for the right woman. I can remember two of them [women he dated before marriage]. But it didn’t work out because he searched for the one that he would spend the rest of his life with.”
Marcus Kidson
Johannette Kidson, the woman who stole Juandré’s heart, was also born and raised in Rustenburg.
While not much is known about her background, Marco confirmed that Johannette worked for his mother, who ran a jumping castle rental business, and that’s where his brother met her.
Johannette was, in many ways, a lot like Juandré. She was a God-fearing woman, a devout Christian with a thirst for adventure and the outdoors.
Not very long after they started dating, Juandré took the knee and a year thereafter; they got married.
Johannette, between 2016 and 2017, joined Juandré’s entrepreneurial venture and became Aquam Vivam’s sales manager.
In 2021, the couple welcomed their first and only child. Looking back at what we’ve learned about Juandré, we can reasonably conclude that his faith-based upbringing paved a way for the blissful and simple life he lived and, at the very least, the manner in which it was taken was categorically undeserving.
What we know about the murder of Juandré Kidson
Saturday, 7 May 2022, was like any other for Juandré and his family.
According to Marco, on Saturdays, Juandré, Johannette and their daughter would always make the 74km drive from Brits, where they lived, to spend the day with his parents in Rustenburg.
Juandré also had business dealings in his hometown, and he’d often tend to those whenever he was around on Saturdays.
On that fateful weekend, though, he had no such arrangements.
The last time Marco saw his brother was around 18:00 when he left the home. Juandré, Johannette and their daughter said their goodbyes and headed back to Brits shortly before 20:00.
Not long thereafter, Juandré’s mother received a WhatsApp message from Johannette, informing her that they had driven over sharp objects on the N4 highway and were forced to park on the side of the road to change a punctured tyre.
“My brother drove as far as he could, but he had to stop to change the tyre,” Marco recalled.
Johannette asked her mother-in-law to keep them in her prayers since that route was synonymous with rampant criminal activity.
In fact, earlier that day, police were called out to the scene of a murder, where a man was shot and killed on the same road.
While Juandré was busy changing the punctured tyre of his Hyundai SUV, three armed men pounced from the bushes and accosted him.
“Johannette heard my brother begging for the murderers just to please leave them alone. They can take everything they want, but they must just please leave them alone,” Marco revealed.
At this point, Juandré was still outside of the car. The armed men rummaged inside the vehicle in search of valuable items to make off with.
Johannette, who had clutched her baby in her arms, was told to get out of the car.
As soon as she was outside, one of the robbers tried snatching the baby out of her grasp, and, according to Marco, this is when things went awry.
Juandré, it’s believed, lunged toward his wife and stood between her and the armed robbers, and this is when he was fatally shot in the head, execution-style.
According to Johannette’s account of events, after her husband was viciously gunned down right in front of her and their daughter, she was shot twice in the shoulder and fell to the ground, covering the baby.
The robbers, possibly spooked by oncoming traffic, took two cellphones, a bag full of baby clothes and nappies, and the couple’s luggage and ran off into the night.
Fortunate to still be alive after encountering the worst possible nightmare of her life, Johannette, with her baby firmly placed in her grasp, ran to get help.
According to Marco, she returned to the crime scene where a towing company had pulled up to inspect the stationary vehicle abandoned on the side of a very busy and dangerous highway.
Johannette tried to contact her mother-in-law, but she wasn’t picking up. Thereafter, she found a contact number belonging to a friend of Juandré’s mother and broke the tragic news to her.
The friend made the short trip to the Kidson home, and that’s how Juandré’s parents were informed of his murder.
The family, gut-wrenched by the tragic news, made the 45-minute trip to the crime scene, where they met a distraught and injured Johannette.
Juandré’s body was collected by forensics officials, and a case of murder was assigned to Brits homicide detective, Sergeant Sibayane.
What’s the latest in the investigation?
We made a number of attempts to reach Sgt Sibayane to get a clear perspective of the investigation but, unfortunately, a response was not returned at the time of this episode’s recording.
However, according to Marco, who voiced his discontent with the manner in which the case has, thus far, been handled, Juandré’s vehicle was taken in for examinations, and forensic officials pulled a number of fingerprint profiles.
What is unclear, at this stage, is whether these profiles include the suspects.
“If my father calls to hear what’s going on in the investigation, they’ll just tell him, no they are still scratching around, they are still trying. We don’t get anything worth out of them to tell us they are really investigating and getting to a point,” Marco said.
From what we know, Johannette, the only eyewitness who may have seen the faces of the killers, was not formally interviewed by authorities, and thus, no composite sketches were ever drawn.
“My parents are heartbroken. I see my father is not the same man he was at all. We all go to see a psychologist that helps us get over this thing and to talk about it. Everyone is doing very, very badly. Life is not the same at all. Maybe it would’ve been much better if police gave us updates on what’s going on.”
Marcus Kidson
With the case pretty much cold more than two months later, the Kidson family has issued an R100 000 cash reward for information that will lead to the arrest and subsequent prosecution of the suspects involved in the murder.
While this reward has spurred interest in the case, Marco revealed that sharing his personal contact information has opened his family up to threats from unknown people, warning him against pursuing justice for his brother.
“There were weird SMSs coming to my side, telling me they want to meet up with me, but they don’t want any police involved. They just want to see me and my family. So, we have a hit on our backs now.”
The Kidson family continues in their pursuit of justice, but from an investigative perspective, the murder case of Juandré, much like many others in South Africa, remains unsolved.
Check out the latest episode of our lifestyle show, The Swisher Podcast, with Sanelisiwe Owetu Ntabeni and Zodidi Dano below: