Latest / The conspiracy / The Pedophiles Next Door. _ (The Gert Van Rooyen Story)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: In South Africa's history, few names spark as much fear
- 0:03Speaker 1: and concern as Gert van Ruyan, a former police officer
- 0:07Speaker 1: turned Van Ruyan, became infamous in the late nineteen eighties
- 0:11Speaker 1: and early nineteen nineties for committing a string of disturbing
- 0:15Speaker 1: child abductions that left families shattered and a nation horrified.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Alongside his partner Joey Harhoff, he lured young girls with
- 0:22Speaker 1: promises of gifts and opportunities, only for the young children
- 0:26Speaker 1: to then vanish without a trace. But beneath the surface
- 0:29Speaker 1: of these disappearances lies an even darker, more twisted story.
- 0:33Speaker 1: Allegations of ritualistic connections to underground Satanic cults and suspicions
- 0:39Speaker 1: of organized networks of exploitation turned Gert van Ruyan's crimes
- 0:44Speaker 1: from mere acts of violence into something far more sinister,
- 0:47Speaker 1: And when authorities finally closed in, Gert van Ruyan chose
- 0:51Speaker 1: murder and self deletion overfacing justice, taking his secrets to
- 0:55Speaker 1: the grave, and leaving behind unanswered questions that still haunt
- 0:59Speaker 1: South outbas today. In today's episode, we're going to unravel
- 1:02Speaker 1: the chilling story of Gert van Ruyin and examine his
- 1:05Speaker 1: crimes his connections to powerful political figures, and the disturbing
- 1:09Speaker 1: allegations of murder and Satanic rituals that continue to clout
- 1:13Speaker 1: his legacy and fuel speculation to this day. I'm Colin Brown,
- 1:17Speaker 1: and welcome to the Conspiracy Files. As a quick statement
- 1:26Speaker 1: before we get in here, all parties are presumed innocent
- 1:28Speaker 1: until proven guilty in a court of law. All the
- 1:30Speaker 1: opinions presented on today's show are solely mine. If you
- 1:33Speaker 1: want to research this story yourself, check out the resources
- 1:36Speaker 1: document posted in the description of the show. This is
- 1:39Speaker 1: a very disturbing story and a very disturbing episode, so
- 1:42Speaker 1: viewer and listener discretion is heavily advised. And as with
- 1:46Speaker 1: all of these cases, these things they sound like they're
- 1:49Speaker 1: too twisted to be real. And I'm not pegging any
- 1:53Speaker 1: sort of group of individuals as all being bad people.
- 1:56Speaker 1: I fully believe that the Satanic Panic was completely overblown
- 2:00Speaker 1: and there were a ton of people that were accused
- 2:02Speaker 1: of doing things that they didn't do. Rock and roll music,
- 2:05Speaker 1: heavy metal music, dungeons and dragons was all targeted during
- 2:08Speaker 1: the Satanic Panic. I mean, I've done a pretty good
- 2:11Speaker 1: job of thoroughly examining so many of these cases. I
- 2:14Speaker 1: cannot believe that there are still groups out there that
- 2:16Speaker 1: say that there's no evidence that there was ever a
- 2:19Speaker 1: recorded case of Satanic ritual. I've covered a bunch of
- 2:22Speaker 1: them on the show. I've spoken with multiple victims for
- 2:25Speaker 1: upcoming projects who suffered at the hands of people that
- 2:28Speaker 1: were carrying out Satanic ritual or sra on them, sometimes
- 2:32Speaker 1: even their own parents or grandparents. But yeah, let's just
- 2:35Speaker 1: get into it. To understand the crimes of Gert van Ruyan,
- 2:38Speaker 1: we need to go back to the beginning. Gert Cornelius
- 2:41Speaker 1: van Ruyan was born on April eleventh, nineteen thirty eight
- 2:45Speaker 1: in South Africa, growing up in a conservative Afrikaans household
- 2:49Speaker 1: during a time of deep social and political division in
- 2:52Speaker 1: the country. Accounts of Gert's childhood paint a complex picture.
- 2:56Speaker 1: On the surface, he was an ordinary boy, quiet, disciplined
- 2:59Speaker 1: and ra with strict values. But behind closed doors, some
- 3:03Speaker 1: reports suggest he was deeply troubled from a young age,
- 3:06Speaker 1: displaying signs of manipulation and cruelty that would later become
- 3:10Speaker 1: defining traits of his twisted personality. As a young man,
- 3:13Speaker 1: Van Ruyins sought structure and authority, something he found in
- 3:17Speaker 1: the South African Police Force in the late nineteen fifties
- 3:20Speaker 1: and early nineteen sixties. He began his career as a
- 3:23Speaker 1: police officer, and the job gave him both status and
- 3:26Speaker 1: power in a society where law enforcement carried immense authority.
- 3:30Speaker 1: Keep in mind, this is back during apartheid, when police
- 3:33Speaker 1: officers were elevated to an almost godlike status, especially when
- 3:38Speaker 1: dealing with you know, certain groups or minorities or I
- 3:41Speaker 1: guess majorities that were being repressed and oppressed by those bigger,
- 3:46Speaker 1: more powerful groups. But being a police officer also exposed
- 3:49Speaker 1: Gert to a darker side of humanity and perhaps helped
- 3:53Speaker 1: give him the tools and confidence that he would later
- 3:55Speaker 1: use for far more sinister purposes. Now. Colleagues have described
- 4:00Speaker 1: Van Ruyin as being an ambitious man, but a deeply
- 4:03Speaker 1: unsettling one. They said he was someone who followed orders
- 4:06Speaker 1: but never seemed to fully fit in. His time in
- 4:08Speaker 1: the police force was relatively short lived, and he eventually
- 4:11Speaker 1: left law enforcement under murky circumstances. What followed was a
- 4:15Speaker 1: steady decline into a life of serious crimes. Now, Gert's
- 4:19Speaker 1: departure marked the beginning of a downward spiral for him.
- 4:22Speaker 1: Over the years that followed, Gert drifted between business ventures,
- 4:26Speaker 1: personal relationships, and brushes with the law. He developed a
- 4:30Speaker 1: reputation for being controlling, secretive, and increasingly unstable. What began
- 4:34Speaker 1: as minor misconduct would eventually escalate into acts of extreme
- 4:39Speaker 1: violence and horror. But it was those formative years, his
- 4:42Speaker 1: strict upbringing, his attraction to authority, and his short career
- 4:45Speaker 1: in the police that laid the foundation for the man
- 4:48Speaker 1: he would later become a predator who used trust, charm,
- 4:51Speaker 1: and power as his weapons. Now, Gert van Ruyin first
- 4:55Speaker 1: turned to business as a way of keeping up appearances.
- 4:58Speaker 1: He dabbled in ventures ranging from small construction projects to
- 5:02Speaker 1: supposed investment opportunities, but instead of building an honest career,
- 5:06Speaker 1: he used charm and manipulation to con others, engaging in
- 5:10Speaker 1: fraudulent schemes that left victims out of money and trust.
- 5:13Speaker 1: These scams landed Girt in court more than once, establishing
- 5:17Speaker 1: a criminal record for him that would shadow him for
- 5:20Speaker 1: the remainder of his life. But obviously, financial fraud wasn't
- 5:24Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyin's only crime. More disturbing patterns slowly began
- 5:28Speaker 1: to emerge over time. By the nineteen seventies, than Ruin
- 5:32Speaker 1: had been convicted of against miners, including during an incident
- 5:37Speaker 1: where he lured two young girls under false pretenses and
- 5:40Speaker 1: then physically and now Gert van Ruyen served time in prison,
- 5:45Speaker 1: but not long enough to prevent him from returning to
- 5:48Speaker 1: society with even darker intentions. And keep that in mind.
- 5:51Speaker 1: You lure in two children, you physically and you serve
- 5:56Speaker 1: as short prison sentence to this day, in some countries
- 5:59Speaker 1: like Canada, in England, and a lot of European countries,
- 6:02Speaker 1: even here in America, for certain people, we don't treat
- 6:05Speaker 1: crimes against children with enough severity. We don't give high
- 6:08Speaker 1: enough sentences or serve high enough, harsh enough consequences. It's
- 6:13Speaker 1: a lot of times to slap on the wrist. And
- 6:15Speaker 1: then these people are allowed back into society and they
- 6:18Speaker 1: reoffend and reoffend and reoffend, and it's deeply disturbing stuff.
- 6:22Speaker 1: And I know that I've talked about this so many
- 6:24Speaker 1: times on the Channel, and some people are sick of it.
- 6:26Speaker 1: But this is my passion, is exposing these people and
- 6:29Speaker 1: telling these stories that are largely forgotten to history. I mean,
- 6:32Speaker 1: I know, for a fact, almost none of you, maybe
- 6:34Speaker 1: some South African viewers of the show, but almost none
- 6:37Speaker 1: of you have heard of Gert van Ruyin. I can't
- 6:39Speaker 1: remember where I came across his name. I think it
- 6:41Speaker 1: was in a book I was reading. But these are
- 6:42Speaker 1: just stories that are purposefully forgotten, stories that are purposefully
- 6:46Speaker 1: shoved under the rug so that we don't keep talking
- 6:49Speaker 1: about them. Because as we're seeing play out with Epstein,
- 6:51Speaker 1: so many world leaders and powerful individuals from all different
- 6:55Speaker 1: industries have their hands in these disgusting pies. And I
- 6:59Speaker 1: don't know what that is. I don't know if power
- 7:01Speaker 1: corrupt or if people that get to that power are
- 7:05Speaker 1: just corrupt and then the power allows them to do
- 7:07Speaker 1: what they want. I don't know exactly what it is. Also,
- 7:10Speaker 1: if you want to listen to this uncensored, join the
- 7:13Speaker 1: Patreon because I know this one's going to have to
- 7:15Speaker 1: be heavily censored, and I apologize for that. It is
- 7:17Speaker 1: not my intention to try make more money or do
- 7:21Speaker 1: this in that or to try and get people to
- 7:22Speaker 1: sign up for Patreon. It's simply because if this was
- 7:25Speaker 1: fully uncensored, I would not only be demonetized, but I've
- 7:28Speaker 1: had videos removed and age restricted, so we want to
- 7:31Speaker 1: avoid that here on YouTube. Now, keep in mind, Gert
- 7:33Speaker 1: van Ruin was convicted of and physically those two little girls,
- 7:40Speaker 1: but he was let out of prison, and despite those
- 7:42Speaker 1: previous convictions, Gert maintained the look of normalcy to those
- 7:46Speaker 1: who didn't really know who he was. Gert married, he
- 7:49Speaker 1: had children of his own, and outwardly he lived as
- 7:52Speaker 1: a businessman and a family man. Yet behind this disguise,
- 7:55Speaker 1: his relationships were turbulent, marked by control and psychological minutation.
- 8:00Speaker 1: He cycled through marriages and divorces and left behind him
- 8:04Speaker 1: a trail of broken families. These early offenses reveal a
- 8:07Speaker 1: clear trajectory for Gert's life. A man who once sought
- 8:11Speaker 1: respect through the police uniform now sought power in far
- 8:14Speaker 1: more threatening and disturbing ways. The same skills he had
- 8:17Speaker 1: learned in law enforcement, like gaining trust, projecting authority, and
- 8:21Speaker 1: exploiting vulnerability, were used later on for his predatory lifestyle,
- 8:25Speaker 1: and as time went on, his crimes only grew more calculated,
- 8:29Speaker 1: more disturbing, and far more dangerous. Now, when most people
- 8:32Speaker 1: talk about Gert van Ruyin, one name always follows close behind.
- 8:37Speaker 1: Joey Harroff. Their meeting was the turning point for when
- 8:40Speaker 1: Gert's dark fantasies found an accomplice who not only understood them,
- 8:44Speaker 1: but also encouraged them. Gert van Ruyin first crossed paths
- 8:48Speaker 1: with Joey Harroff in the mid nineteen eighties. At that time,
- 8:51Speaker 1: Joey was a divorced former Sunday school teacher. Joey met
- 8:55Speaker 1: Gert in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, when the
- 8:58Speaker 1: two were introduced through social circles connected to the churches
- 9:02Speaker 1: she sometimes attended in Pretoria. She was remembered as a
- 9:05Speaker 1: bit of an odd ball, a little bit strange. Some
- 9:08Speaker 1: neighbors found her friendly, while others thought she had an
- 9:11Speaker 1: eerie aura to her. She was a little unsettling. She
- 9:13Speaker 1: wasn't someone who blended in easily. We'll just say that.
- 9:16Speaker 1: But when Gert and Joey met, their connection was instant
- 9:19Speaker 1: and the relationship moved quickly. Joey was drawn to Gert's
- 9:23Speaker 1: intensity and the way he spoke with authority, and Gert,
- 9:26Speaker 1: for his part, recognized Joey's desire to be led and
- 9:29Speaker 1: her clingy tendencies, which in his mind made her extremely
- 9:33Speaker 1: easy to influence. But there was something darker at play too.
- 9:36Speaker 1: Early on in the relationship, Gert van Ruyen tested Joey's boundaries,
- 9:41Speaker 1: revealing the contours of his fantasies and desires that would
- 9:44Speaker 1: repulse most people. But instead of recoiling, Joey leaned in.
- 9:48Speaker 1: She not only accepted gertz twisted worldview and his disturbing desires,
- 9:53Speaker 1: but she even began to mirror it and even strengthen them.
- 9:56Speaker 1: What might have remained gertz hidden fantasies became reality when
- 10:00Speaker 1: he was paired with Joey's willingness to act and carry
- 10:03Speaker 1: them out, and together, the two of them became something
- 10:06Speaker 1: neither of them ever could have been alone. By nineteen
- 10:09Speaker 1: eighty eight, they were inseparable. They lived together, worked together,
- 10:13Speaker 1: and crucially began planning together. When seeing photos of them together,
- 10:18Speaker 1: they looked like your typical older, sweet couple who you'd
- 10:21Speaker 1: see at church on Sundays are at the local diner
- 10:23Speaker 1: down the road. But unfortunately, the two of them were
- 10:26Speaker 1: anything but sweet. From nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety,
- 10:30Speaker 1: Gert and Joey went on a and potentially murder spree.
- 10:34Speaker 1: Gert would use Joey to lure young girls on his behalf.
- 10:38Speaker 1: She would appear soft and kind to disarm the children
- 10:41Speaker 1: and disturbingly, children's homes later reported that Joey frequently called
- 10:45Speaker 1: their facilities requesting to take girls home for weekends or
- 10:49Speaker 1: holidays to give them some love and a temporary home.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Although Gert and Joey applied to host foster children, their
- 10:55Speaker 1: application thankfully was rejected. But despite all of this, at
- 10:59Speaker 1: the end of night teen eighty nine, a fourteen year
- 11:01Speaker 1: old girl from an Orange Free State orphanage spent Christmas
- 11:05Speaker 1: in the Van Ruyan house. While this teenage girl's identity
- 11:09Speaker 1: still remains unknown, her case is significant because it marks
- 11:12Speaker 1: the first known instance of Gert and Joey taking a
- 11:15Speaker 1: kid into their house. The pattern of abductions began on
- 11:18Speaker 1: August first, nineteen eighty eight, when fourteen year old Tracy
- 11:22Speaker 1: Lee Scott Crossley from Randburg near Johannesburg, disappeared. Witnesses saw
- 11:27Speaker 1: her enter a Volkswagen Beetle outside a shopping mall in Cresta,
- 11:31Speaker 1: only to be never seen again. Her disappearance prompted a
- 11:34Speaker 1: nationwide police search and a poster campaign. Tracy Lee's brother Mark,
- 11:38Speaker 1: who had declined to accompany her that day, was left
- 11:41Speaker 1: traumatized and felt guilty for not going with her that
- 11:44Speaker 1: afternoon to the mall. Then four months later, on December
- 11:48Speaker 1: twenty second, nineteen eighty eight, twelve year old Fiona Harvey
- 11:51Speaker 1: of peter Martzburg went missing. Investigators later connected her disappearance
- 11:56Speaker 1: to Gert when a white Ford Bantam pickup truck involved
- 11:59Speaker 1: in the abduction was found displaying an advertisement for Gert's
- 12:02Speaker 1: building contracting business, which he operated out of his home.
- 12:06Speaker 1: On June seventh, nineteen eighty nine, twelve year old Joan
- 12:09Speaker 1: Horn of Pretoria vanished, and one month later, sixteen year
- 12:13Speaker 1: old Janet Delport from Durban was abducted from a shopping
- 12:16Speaker 1: mall by a blond woman later believed to have been
- 12:19Speaker 1: Joey Harroff. She was later found wandering distressed but unharmed.
- 12:24Speaker 1: Then a few weeks later, young nine year old Rose
- 12:27Speaker 1: Appeal of Alberton banished off the face of the earth,
- 12:30Speaker 1: but it continued. September twenty second, nineteen eighty nine, eleven
- 12:33Speaker 1: year old Odette Boucher and twelve year old Anne Marie Wappinar,
- 12:37Speaker 1: both from Kempton Park, went missing. Just a week later,
- 12:40Speaker 1: Anne Marie's mother received a letter claiming that her daughter
- 12:44Speaker 1: and Odette had run away to Durban with a couple
- 12:47Speaker 1: of boys. Investigators suspect that the letters were written under
- 12:51Speaker 1: duress and used as an attempt to prevent her family
- 12:54Speaker 1: from assuming the worst. Then, on November third, nineteen eighty nine,
- 12:58Speaker 1: thirteen year old Yolanda Wessel, Joey's own niece, disappeared. It
- 13:02Speaker 1: was clear that there was something horrific lurking around these communities,
- 13:05Speaker 1: but nobody knew exactly what was going on. No one
- 13:08Speaker 1: knew where the young girls were going to. No one
- 13:10Speaker 1: knew who was taking the young girls. With a lot
- 13:13Speaker 1: of these young girls, their parents and community members didn't
- 13:16Speaker 1: even know that they had been taken. Some assumed that
- 13:18Speaker 1: they had just run away or vanished, gone to live
- 13:21Speaker 1: with friends or another family member, or just left the
- 13:23Speaker 1: home and didn't look back. On January eleventh, nineteen ninety,
- 13:27Speaker 1: a sixteen year old girl from Pretoria named Joan Boyson
- 13:31Speaker 1: was targeted by Gert and Joey, but she escaped, an
- 13:34Speaker 1: event that changed the course of everything now. At the time,
- 13:37Speaker 1: Joan was approached by the couple in Church Square, Pretoria
- 13:41Speaker 1: and offered a babysitting job for the family, a tactic
- 13:44Speaker 1: that they sometimes used to lure in young girls. Gert
- 13:48Speaker 1: was there with Joey and the two of them looked
- 13:50Speaker 1: incredibly harmless, and so Joan accepted the opportunity and agreed
- 13:54Speaker 1: to come over to their house to babysit. She then
- 13:56Speaker 1: got into their car and was driven to their home. However,
- 13:59Speaker 1: upon arrival, things quickly went south and Joan was handcuffed
- 14:04Speaker 1: and before afterwards being locked in a cupboard. While Joan
- 14:08Speaker 1: was inside of the home, she found some bizarre items
- 14:11Speaker 1: like handcuffs, syringes, and chloroformed bottles. Now, Joan was luckily
- 14:16Speaker 1: able to escape at some point and immediately went to
- 14:19Speaker 1: the police and reported to the South African Police exactly
- 14:22Speaker 1: what happened at Gert and Joey's house, and thankfully, unlike
- 14:26Speaker 1: in some locations, they listen. The police then set up
- 14:29Speaker 1: surveillance on the fenced in home for four days and
- 14:32Speaker 1: later identified Gert when he drove past his house in
- 14:35Speaker 1: a white Ford pickup truck that matched the description of
- 14:38Speaker 1: a vehicle used in one of the abductions. Less than
- 14:40Speaker 1: a week later, during a police chase, Gert van Ruyan
- 14:43Speaker 1: killed Joey Harroff and then self deleted in a murder
- 14:47Speaker 1: self deletion while the police officers watched. That's right, Joey
- 14:51Speaker 1: and Gert were cornered. They were at the end of
- 14:54Speaker 1: the line. Everything was catching up to them. They had
- 14:56Speaker 1: led the police on a chase, and that's when Gert
- 14:58Speaker 1: turned the gun on what was the love of his life,
- 15:00Speaker 1: pulled the trigger and then did the same to himself.
- 15:03Speaker 1: The police almost were going to crack one of the
- 15:06Speaker 1: biggest cases in South African history. Their answers were just
- 15:10Speaker 1: a few feet in front of them, but then those
- 15:11Speaker 1: answers were taken to the grave with both suspects. After
- 15:15Speaker 1: their death, the police opened a full investigation into the couple.
- 15:19Speaker 1: Their residence, located at two twenty seven Mallerby Street in
- 15:22Speaker 1: Capitol Park, was later searched and was then in the
- 15:25Speaker 1: press referred to as the House of Horrors. Investigators discovered
- 15:29Speaker 1: inside of the house several items that linked the couple
- 15:32Speaker 1: to their victims. For example, a piece of paper with
- 15:35Speaker 1: Odette Boucher's home address and phone number were found hidden
- 15:38Speaker 1: under a carpet in the garage. Additionally, her class captain's
- 15:42Speaker 1: badge and yellow bag were recovered from the premises. Anne
- 15:45Speaker 1: Marie Wapinar's address, home, keys, and the envelopes and papers
- 15:49Speaker 1: she had used to write to her parents were also
- 15:51Speaker 1: found inside of the home. Further investigations continued years later,
- 15:55Speaker 1: and in nineteen ninety six, the authorities decided to interestingly
- 15:59Speaker 1: demolish the high in order to facilitate a more thorough search.
- 16:03Speaker 1: They scanned the walls with sonar equipment, shifted through soil
- 16:06Speaker 1: in the garden, and removed the roof to examine the structure.
- 16:09Speaker 1: While some bones were uncovered, forensic analysis confirmed they weren't human.
- 16:13Speaker 1: Despite these efforts, the fates of the victims remained unknown,
- 16:17Speaker 1: which left families without closure and the public with lingering
- 16:20Speaker 1: questions about whether Gert van Ruyan and Joey Harroff's crimes
- 16:24Speaker 1: may have extended beyond South Africa's borders. Now, there's proof
- 16:28Speaker 1: that some of these missing girls were inside the house
- 16:31Speaker 1: because their personal items were found, but that's primarily it.
- 16:34Speaker 1: There was never any actual DNA hair, blood, or evidence
- 16:38Speaker 1: of any of these girls' bodies found at the crime scene.
- 16:41Speaker 1: So where the hell are these girls and what happened
- 16:44Speaker 1: to them? And this is where it gets a little
- 16:46Speaker 1: bit bizarre. In June of nineteen ninety, a customer at
- 16:49Speaker 1: the Fabric Library in Midrand discovered a written note hidden
- 16:53Speaker 1: among the store's slips. The note, written in a child's handwriting, read,
- 16:57Speaker 1: I am Anne Marie, my friend and I are with
- 16:59Speaker 1: our kidnappers at address my friend has tried to phone
- 17:02Speaker 1: but was cut off. The address was later traced to
- 17:05Speaker 1: a location in Johannesburg, but it wasn't Gert and Joey's house.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Anne Marie Wappinar had been missing since September of nineteen
- 17:12Speaker 1: eighty nine, along with her friend Odette Boucher. The note's
- 17:15Speaker 1: discovery reignited hope amongst their families that the girls might
- 17:18Speaker 1: actually still be alive. Former Fabric Library personal assistant Deborah
- 17:22Speaker 1: Sloane recalled a girl of about twelve years old with
- 17:26Speaker 1: short black hair who appeared very scared shortly before the
- 17:29Speaker 1: note was found. Sloane had wondered at the time why
- 17:32Speaker 1: the girl inside of the library had looked so frightened.
- 17:35Speaker 1: Handwriting experts later confirmed that the note was indeed written
- 17:38Speaker 1: by Anne Marie. However, police investigations at the address that
- 17:42Speaker 1: Anne Marie wrote down in that note provided no evidence
- 17:45Speaker 1: or answers. Despite this, though, the note remains the only
- 17:48Speaker 1: piece of evidence suggesting that Anne, Marie and Odette were
- 17:52Speaker 1: alive months after their kidnappers' deaths. And this brings up
- 17:56Speaker 1: a lot of questions. Now, if these two girls weren't
- 17:59Speaker 1: being held captain by Gert van Ruyan and Joey Harroff,
- 18:02Speaker 1: then who were they with? Had they been given to
- 18:04Speaker 1: someone else, had they been sold to someone else? What
- 18:07Speaker 1: was going on well. In two thousand and seven, a
- 18:10Speaker 1: significant discovery was made near Gert van Ruyin's former residence
- 18:14Speaker 1: in Capitol Park, Pretoria, a discovery that raised renewed concerns
- 18:18Speaker 1: about the fates of he and Joey's victims. While installing
- 18:21Speaker 1: a swimming pool on a neighboring property, workers unearthed human bones,
- 18:25Speaker 1: including a jawbone, an iliac bone, and three teeth. The
- 18:29Speaker 1: bones were found in close proximity to what would have
- 18:32Speaker 1: been Gert van Ruyan's house, which remember had been demolished
- 18:35Speaker 1: years earlier during an investigation into the disappearances of those
- 18:39Speaker 1: several young girls that were linked to him. Amongst the
- 18:42Speaker 1: unearthed items were a green dress, black tights, and a
- 18:45Speaker 1: brass ring. Forensic scientist David Klatzau, who joined the investigation,
- 18:49Speaker 1: noted that some of the bones exhibited saw marks, suggesting
- 18:53Speaker 1: they may have been deliberately severed. He also pointed out
- 18:56Speaker 1: that the bones appeared to have belonged to a young
- 18:59Speaker 1: teenager who oppos to an adult. The discovery reignited public
- 19:02Speaker 1: interest in the case, with many speculating that the remains
- 19:06Speaker 1: could belong to one of Van Ruyin's missing victims. However,
- 19:09Speaker 1: subsequent DNA testing did not result in any positive identification,
- 19:14Speaker 1: and to this day, they still don't know who those
- 19:17Speaker 1: bones belonged to. It's an unidentified teenage girl's assorted body parts.
- 19:22Speaker 1: Private investigator at the time, Henny Else, stated that there
- 19:25Speaker 1: wasn't a proper missing person's bureau in South Africa at
- 19:28Speaker 1: the time, and the police stations in the country didn't
- 19:31Speaker 1: really coordinate with one another, so trying to solve that
- 19:34Speaker 1: case was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
- 19:37Speaker 1: There wasn't any proper database that they could look through,
- 19:39Speaker 1: there was no DNA to compare it against. It was
- 19:42Speaker 1: just kind of literally searching through a haystack for a needle.
- 19:45Speaker 1: So now you have an unidentified teenaged girl's remains found
- 19:49Speaker 1: near Gert van Ruyin's former property. But things just continue
- 19:52Speaker 1: to get darker from here. Gert van Ruyin and Joey
- 19:55Speaker 1: Harroff had been under investigation for the abduction and of
- 19:59Speaker 1: young girls, yet the extent of their crimes remained shrouded
- 20:02Speaker 1: in mystery, which over the years has left the public
- 20:05Speaker 1: with unanswered questions and sensational speculation. After all, these girls
- 20:10Speaker 1: went missing around the same time and were linked to
- 20:12Speaker 1: the couple, but still to this day, nobody knows exactly
- 20:15Speaker 1: what happened to them or where they are. Not a
- 20:17Speaker 1: single trace of them, dead or alive, has ever been found.
- 20:21Speaker 1: At the time, the police also considered the possibility that
- 20:25Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyan and Joey Harroff were involved in some
- 20:28Speaker 1: sort of satanic cult practices. According to news reports at
- 20:31Speaker 1: the time, the authorities initially theorized that the girls may
- 20:35Speaker 1: have been killed as a part of some sort of
- 20:37Speaker 1: bizarre series of rituals. The authorities at the time even
- 20:40Speaker 1: consulted a cult expert, Superintendent Kobis Jonker, who stated that
- 20:44Speaker 1: there was no proof that ceremonies had taken place at
- 20:47Speaker 1: the house. He didn't entirely rule out the possibility that
- 20:50Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyan could have been a practicing Satanic priest,
- 20:54Speaker 1: though and if so, he stated, he could have appeared
- 20:56Speaker 1: to live in ordinary life while conducting darker rituals elsewhere.
- 21:00Speaker 1: After all, we know several of the missing girls belongings
- 21:03Speaker 1: were found inside the house, but not a trace of
- 21:05Speaker 1: any crime was ever discovered. No blood, no DNA, no
- 21:09Speaker 1: body parts, no hair, nothing of the sort. What they
- 21:13Speaker 1: did find were items involving kidnapping, holding and what seemed
- 21:17Speaker 1: to be the transportation of people handcuffs, shackles and chloroform.
- 21:22Speaker 1: This adds to the theory jonker Head about the couple
- 21:25Speaker 1: conducting these rituals somewhere else. The assumption of Satanic rituals
- 21:29Speaker 1: wasn't so far fetched either, you see, in the late
- 21:32Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, South Africa was embroiled in political turmoil, with
- 21:36Speaker 1: protests erupting and violence increasing all across the country. Against
- 21:40Speaker 1: this backdrop of social unrest, a new kind of anxiety
- 21:43Speaker 1: began to take root, a belief that Satanic rituals and
- 21:46Speaker 1: occult practices were spreading rapidly across the nation. The freight
- 21:50Speaker 1: grew so strong that the South African Police or SAP,
- 21:54Speaker 1: established a dedicated occult related crimes unit led by jonker That,
- 21:58Speaker 1: a cult specialist who became known as the country's foremost
- 22:01Speaker 1: occult expert, called in whenever cas is hinted at ritualistic elements.
- 22:06Speaker 1: It was within this atmosphere that the crimes of Gert
- 22:08Speaker 1: van Ruyin and Joey Harroff came to light. When the
- 22:11Speaker 1: young girls vanished in their orbit, speculation quickly turned to
- 22:14Speaker 1: the possibility of Neighbors described Gert van Ruyen's house as
- 22:19Speaker 1: having been a fortress, and the fact that none of
- 22:22Speaker 1: the girls were ever found has only deepened this mystery now.
- 22:25Speaker 1: Much like the Satanic panic in the US and Europe
- 22:28Speaker 1: during the same time period, South Africa's fears reflected the
- 22:31Speaker 1: country's anxieties at a time during intense political change, rising
- 22:35Speaker 1: crime rates, and an overall sense that pervaded society that
- 22:39Speaker 1: society itself was spinning out of control. In Gert van
- 22:42Speaker 1: Ruyen's case, the lack of answers about what really happened
- 22:45Speaker 1: to the girls left space for these theories to grow.
- 22:47Speaker 1: For many, the possibility that the children had been lost
- 22:50Speaker 1: to became a way for them to help explain the unexplainable. Additionally,
- 22:55Speaker 1: Gert Van Ruyan's own son Flippy, publicly claimed after his
- 22:59Speaker 1: father's death that the couple had missing six girls in
- 23:02Speaker 1: satanic rites, their bodies in acid. Flippy was later charged
- 23:07Speaker 1: with perjury for the statement, among others We will get
- 23:10Speaker 1: into soon, but this would make sense as to why
- 23:12Speaker 1: the girls would never be found anywhere. Now. Speaking of Flippy,
- 23:16Speaker 1: he himself was sentenced to death in June of nineteen
- 23:19Speaker 1: ninety one for the murder of a teenaged girl from Zimbabwe.
- 23:23Speaker 1: His sentence was changed to life in prison, and he
- 23:25Speaker 1: was actually later released on parole, which is pretty horrifying.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Fascination with children and murder runs in the family. I guess,
- 23:33Speaker 1: so this kid's dad and the dad's girlfriend wife whatever
- 23:37Speaker 1: was abducting children, and the sun also goes on to
- 23:45Speaker 1: a child. I mean, it really does run in the
- 23:47Speaker 1: family in this case. The more popular theory of what
- 23:50Speaker 1: happened to the girls, though, is that they were insold
- 23:53Speaker 1: into a much wider Given what we've talked about on
- 23:57Speaker 1: this show already, this is not out of the realm
- 23:59Speaker 1: of possibility. The fear of ritualistic activity became entwined with
- 24:03Speaker 1: speculation about, suggesting that some believed exploitation could serve both
- 24:09Speaker 1: financial and ritualistic purposes. So you got to understand the
- 24:13Speaker 1: socio political landscape of nineteen eighty South Africa created a
- 24:17Speaker 1: fertile ground for such crimes. Forced relocations, family separations due
- 24:22Speaker 1: to migrant labor policies and widespread poverty had left children
- 24:26Speaker 1: in South Africa in townships and rural homelands particularly susceptible
- 24:30Speaker 1: to an exploitation. Gert van Ruyan knew this, and he
- 24:34Speaker 1: targeted these vulnerable communities, luring in young girls and children
- 24:39Speaker 1: with promises of employment, money, love and attention only to
- 24:42Speaker 1: then Gert van Ruin's construction business provided him with access
- 24:48Speaker 1: to domestic workers and others who could also allegedly help
- 24:52Speaker 1: facilitate these schemes. The disappearance of the girls raised suspicions
- 24:56Speaker 1: of a more extensive and once again, Girt van Ruyan's son, Flippy,
- 25:01Speaker 1: later alleged that some of the missing girls were taken overseas,
- 25:05Speaker 1: specifically to the Middle East, and suggested that prominent political
- 25:09Speaker 1: figures may have been involved in a including a group
- 25:13Speaker 1: of National Party officials, which was the ruling political party
- 25:16Speaker 1: in South Africa at the time. Now, it's very interesting.
- 25:20Speaker 1: On paper, Gert van Ruyan's construction business was failing. He
- 25:23Speaker 1: wasn't getting very many jobs. He wasn't a prominent businessman
- 25:27Speaker 1: to the point where he was busy all the time.
- 25:29Speaker 1: According to financial documents and testimony, his actual construction business
- 25:34Speaker 1: was a flop, and yet Gert van Ruyan, along with
- 25:37Speaker 1: Joey Harroff, maintained a pretty luxurious lifestyle. They seem to
- 25:41Speaker 1: have a lot of money and flippy. Gert van Ruyin's
- 25:43Speaker 1: son has stated that his father's maintained wealth came from
- 25:47Speaker 1: providing to this extended Girt van Ruyan was often seen
- 25:52Speaker 1: carrying large sums of cash. He would show up one
- 25:55Speaker 1: day with huge wads of one hundred dollars bills in
- 25:57Speaker 1: his hands, and he never told anybody where he was
- 26:00Speaker 1: getting this cash from. So where did the money come from? Well,
- 26:04Speaker 1: Domestic workers and handymen that did work for Girt Van
- 26:07Speaker 1: Ruyin's construction company when he did get jobs, reported that
- 26:10Speaker 1: he frequently failed to pay them for their services. One
- 26:13Speaker 1: domestic worker alleged that Gert van Ruyan once threatened to
- 26:17Speaker 1: withhold her wages unless she brought him quote young girls
- 26:20Speaker 1: from the township end quote, which obviously is an incredibly
- 26:24Speaker 1: strange thing to say. And once again, like I said before,
- 26:28Speaker 1: neighbors described the Van Ruyan residence as a heavily fortified compound.
- 26:32Speaker 1: One neighbor even recalled that quote nobody could get in
- 26:35Speaker 1: there end quote, explaining that the security gates were locked
- 26:38Speaker 1: immediately after anyone was allowed inside or exited the premises.
- 26:42Speaker 1: Another noted that Gert van Ruyan never parked in front
- 26:45Speaker 1: of the house and instead drove into the enclosed car
- 26:48Speaker 1: park and locked the gates behind him, giving the property
- 26:51Speaker 1: of the appearance of a small and tightly guarded fortress.
- 26:54Speaker 1: The atmosphere around the house contributed to the sense of
- 26:57Speaker 1: dread and secrecy that also surrounded the couple. Additionally, just
- 27:01Speaker 1: like the presence of handcuffs, shackles, and chloroform bottles raised
- 27:05Speaker 1: suspicions about the potential for satanic rituals being held elsewhere, it,
- 27:09Speaker 1: in my mind even more so proves this theory. There's
- 27:12Speaker 1: a good chance that they held these girls captive in
- 27:15Speaker 1: their locked up home until the girls were sold off
- 27:17Speaker 1: to someone else somewhere far away. These allegations reflect broader
- 27:21Speaker 1: fears of cross border operating during the apartheid era, the
- 27:26Speaker 1: period of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa
- 27:30Speaker 1: which lasted from nineteen forty eight to the early nineteen nineties. Sadly,
- 27:34Speaker 1: the government's focus at that time was on maintaining control
- 27:38Speaker 1: and suppressing political dissent, not on investigating organized crime targeting children.
- 27:43Speaker 1: Police resources were limited, and the families of missing children
- 27:46Speaker 1: often lacked the means to demand accountability. This environment of
- 27:50Speaker 1: neglect allowed Gert van Ruyan and Joey Harroff's operations to
- 27:53Speaker 1: continue undetected for years, reflecting the freedom that broader networks
- 27:58Speaker 1: enjoyed all across the Guld. Interestingly, it was also reported
- 28:02Speaker 1: that Gert and Joey traveled to several remote or less
- 28:05Speaker 1: populated areas around Pretoria and the surrounding regions, which many
- 28:10Speaker 1: believe were locations where they carried out their crimes. Some
- 28:13Speaker 1: of the locations include the Harby's Port Dam area, a
- 28:16Speaker 1: relatively isolated area in northwest of Pretoria where Gert van
- 28:20Speaker 1: Ruyan those two young girls in nineteen seventy nine. The
- 28:24Speaker 1: Warmbaths now Bella Bella Limpopo Province, a location where Gert
- 28:28Speaker 1: and Joey reportedly vacationed, using the remote setting as a
- 28:32Speaker 1: potential site for their criminal activities. Undlaudi Beach or Quazulu Natal,
- 28:36Speaker 1: where authorities believe some of the couple's victims may be
- 28:39Speaker 1: buried as the time of the abductions corresponded to their
- 28:42Speaker 1: known vacationing periods. Blyithdale Beach Quazulu Natal where in twenty seventeen,
- 28:48Speaker 1: forensic specialists excavated sites around the beach north of Durban,
- 28:52Speaker 1: and it's believed that Gert van Ruyan may have buried
- 28:55Speaker 1: some of his victims there. In twenty seventeen, the Kuazulu
- 28:58Speaker 1: Natal police even excav a different beach in Durban to
- 29:01Speaker 1: search for the remains of the missing girls after a
- 29:04Speaker 1: fifteen month research of Gert van Ruyan's life led to
- 29:07Speaker 1: information that caused them to believe that these young girls'
- 29:10Speaker 1: bodies might have been buried close to a storm water
- 29:13Speaker 1: drade in the area. During the search, reporters reached out
- 29:16Speaker 1: to Flippy, Gert's son, but his legal representative advised that
- 29:19Speaker 1: he couldn't comment because his parole conditions didn't expire until
- 29:23Speaker 1: two years later. However, a former acquaintance of Flippy stated
- 29:27Speaker 1: that there had long been rumors of incidents occurring on
- 29:29Speaker 1: the North coast. At around the same time that Flippy
- 29:32Speaker 1: made his claims, Police officer Don Chandler, who was working
- 29:35Speaker 1: on the case in nineteen ninety and was actually present
- 29:38Speaker 1: when Gert van Ruyen committed the murder self deletion, publicly
- 29:42Speaker 1: stated that he believed that Gert had sold the children
- 29:45Speaker 1: and shipped them out of the country. This is an
- 29:47Speaker 1: actual police officer who has commented and endorsed the theory
- 29:51Speaker 1: of international He also publicly stated that government officials may
- 29:56Speaker 1: have been involved, but as of twenty twenty, he was
- 29:59Speaker 1: still invested the case. After all those years. The theory
- 30:03Speaker 1: is so acknowledged and believed in that Netflix even released
- 30:06Speaker 1: a South African thriller called I Am All Girls in
- 30:10Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, which followed a story about missing girls
- 30:13Speaker 1: in South Africa being in and out of the country
- 30:16Speaker 1: and obviously throughout the country itself. The movie's antagonists even
- 30:20Speaker 1: feature high ranking government officials and influential figures who in
- 30:24Speaker 1: the film are all implicated in the exploitation of young children,
- 30:28Speaker 1: with Gert van Ruyan, who is a character in the
- 30:31Speaker 1: film himself now as horrifying as their crimes were, many
- 30:34Speaker 1: ask an even darker question, who allowed Gert van Ruyin
- 30:37Speaker 1: and Joey Harroff to operate without detection for several years
- 30:42Speaker 1: and would he ever have been exposed if it hadn't
- 30:44Speaker 1: have been for the brave survivor who was able to escape.
- 30:47Speaker 1: Speculation has long swirled around South Africa's corridors of power.
- 30:51Speaker 1: Some believe high ranking National Party officials may have looked
- 30:54Speaker 1: the other way, or worse, may have paid Gert van
- 30:56Speaker 1: Ruyan to actively facilitate his crimes. The allegations brought to
- 31:01Speaker 1: light and the Lost Boys of Bird Island scandal, which
- 31:03Speaker 1: involved prominent government ministers young boys during the same timeframe.
- 31:08Speaker 1: Others point to law enforcement whose extremely slow response to
- 31:12Speaker 1: searching for the missing children and responding to missing children
- 31:16Speaker 1: reports may have involved a mix of corruption, fear, or
- 31:19Speaker 1: simply negligence. The girls who went missing at the hands
- 31:22Speaker 1: of Girt van Ruyin and Joey Harroff were even brushed
- 31:25Speaker 1: off by law enforcement as probably just being runaways at first.
- 31:29Speaker 1: There were no systems or laws in place at the
- 31:31Speaker 1: time when dealing with missing children, which played a huge
- 31:34Speaker 1: negative impact on this case and also fueled conspiracies. And
- 31:38Speaker 1: then there are the whispers about business intermediaries, those who
- 31:41Speaker 1: provided Girt van Ruyen with vehicles, with properties, or with
- 31:45Speaker 1: access to their remote and private locations, business connections who
- 31:50Speaker 1: possibly helped to enable Gert van Ruin's crimes to continue
- 31:54Speaker 1: uninvestigated and unchecked. While no court has ever confirmed these connections,
- 31:58Speaker 1: it should be also stated that there's never been any real, deep,
- 32:01Speaker 1: thorough government investigation into the connections in the first place,
- 32:05Speaker 1: so there was never any conclusion, but there was never
- 32:08Speaker 1: really any search or question in the beginning, and these suspicions,
- 32:12Speaker 1: even if they haven't been confirmed, underscore a chilling reality.
- 32:15Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyin's actions did not exist or happen in
- 32:18Speaker 1: a void, and they do hint at a shadowy network
- 32:21Speaker 1: where power, privilege, and fear may have all conspired together
- 32:25Speaker 1: to protect Gert and his partner Joey Now. In twenty ten,
- 32:29Speaker 1: then detective Marcel van Derwatt was drawn back into the
- 32:33Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyen case after three sources approached him claiming
- 32:36Speaker 1: serious irregularities had flawed the original investigation. His new investigation
- 32:41Speaker 1: took him back to Pretoria, where he visited seventeen different
- 32:45Speaker 1: addresses allegedly connected to Gert van Ruyan, Joey Harroff and
- 32:49Speaker 1: their crimes. He said at the time quote to me,
- 32:51Speaker 1: it was clear there were numerous lines of inquiry that
- 32:54Speaker 1: had never been fully explored end quote. Together with his
- 32:57Speaker 1: commanding officer, he even flew to Pretoria from Port Elizabeth
- 33:01Speaker 1: to meet the former head of the Hawks, General Anwar Drammat.
- 33:04Speaker 1: The Hawks are a specialized branch of the South African
- 33:07Speaker 1: Police Service responsible for investigating and combating national priority offenses
- 33:13Speaker 1: like organized crime and corruption. The detective Vanderwatt strongly recommended
- 33:17Speaker 1: to Dramat, the leader of the Hawks, that he should
- 33:20Speaker 1: reopen the investigation into Gert and Joey, and said that
- 33:23Speaker 1: at that point he had a list of one hundred
- 33:25Speaker 1: and twenty one individuals that had been compiled by sources
- 33:28Speaker 1: who could still provide valuable information on the crimes and
- 33:32Speaker 1: potentially help them figure out what happened to those missing children.
- 33:35Speaker 1: Two formal letters drafted by a family member and addressed
- 33:39Speaker 1: directly to Dramat and General Becky Celly, remain unanswered to
- 33:44Speaker 1: this day. They never responded to those letters. They never
- 33:47Speaker 1: took any action, even though he said he had one
- 33:49Speaker 1: hundred and twenty one people that could speak to these
- 33:51Speaker 1: crimes and provide evidence and help them figure out what
- 33:54Speaker 1: the hell happened to all of these missing children, they
- 33:57Speaker 1: never did anything about it. It was brought up to them.
- 33:59Speaker 1: There were that were directly sent to them, documented to
- 34:02Speaker 1: have been sent to them and received by them, and
- 34:04Speaker 1: they did nothing. But Detective Vanderwatt did uncover some disturbing
- 34:08Speaker 1: claims of a possible cover up in his twenty ten
- 34:11Speaker 1: investigative efforts. He found that there were allegations from former
- 34:15Speaker 1: and current police officers about irregularities, peculiarities, missing information in
- 34:20Speaker 1: the investigation, and he stated that even one or two
- 34:23Speaker 1: ex owners had told him the same story that politicians
- 34:27Speaker 1: at that time had frequented and were involved with children,
- 34:31Speaker 1: and these owners even told the detective that Gert van
- 34:35Speaker 1: Ruyan had connections with these very figures. As a recognized
- 34:39Speaker 1: human specialist at UNISA, Vanderwat the detective believed that even
- 34:44Speaker 1: after decades, the case could yield answers if a dedicated
- 34:48Speaker 1: team were assembled and tasked with finding them. He said,
- 34:51Speaker 1: quote following a systematic process analyzing whatever information and sources remained,
- 34:56Speaker 1: the police and government could finally put speculation to rest.
- 35:00Speaker 1: Families in South Africa deserve an answer. It's been over
- 35:02Speaker 1: three decades and they're still waiting. End quote. Meanwhile, new
- 35:06Speaker 1: were insights discovered in twenty ten from people who knew
- 35:10Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyan as a teenager, pointed to a possible
- 35:13Speaker 1: location where he may have disposed of some victims. Remains
- 35:16Speaker 1: Beneath the Pretoria shopping mall on Blowyd Street lies the
- 35:20Speaker 1: site of a deep well that, decades earlier was a
- 35:23Speaker 1: playground haunt for the young Gert van Ruyen. In the
- 35:25Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, Gert lived in a modest house near the
- 35:29Speaker 1: Pretorias Central business district, just blocks from the heart of
- 35:32Speaker 1: the city, and even then he had a reputation as
- 35:34Speaker 1: someone to be feared. Neighbors recall him being bombastic, elusive,
- 35:38Speaker 1: and detached from other children. The Vermacked brothers were friends
- 35:42Speaker 1: with Van Ruyin's brother Johnny, who told them that eight
- 35:45Speaker 1: people lived in that house near their home. The children
- 35:48Speaker 1: once played around in open well, which was later covered
- 35:51Speaker 1: with metal sheets and rocks for safety. Lean Vermock recalled
- 35:54Speaker 1: at one point, when passing by seeing Gert van Ruyen
- 35:58Speaker 1: at the well itself, which may have m main in
- 36:00Speaker 1: use up into the nineteen eighties, and since then Blowyd
- 36:04Speaker 1: Street has been transformed. The houses are gone and the
- 36:07Speaker 1: well is buried beneath what is now the Blowyd Street
- 36:10Speaker 1: Mall still though ground penetrating radar could potentially reveal whether
- 36:14Speaker 1: the site still holds evidence or potentially holds the remains
- 36:17Speaker 1: of all those missing young girls. Marcel Vanderwatt's investigation into
- 36:21Speaker 1: the Gert van Ruin case highlights both the gaps and
- 36:24Speaker 1: the lingering potential within the decades old files. Through his
- 36:28Speaker 1: visits to some of these sites, his interviews with witnesses,
- 36:31Speaker 1: and the compilation of leads from over one hundred different sources,
- 36:34Speaker 1: Detective Van Derwatt identified numerous different avenues that were never
- 36:39Speaker 1: fully explored by authorities of the time, pointing to serious
- 36:42Speaker 1: shortcomings in the original investigation and a potential cover up.
- 36:46Speaker 1: He found all this evidence in twenty ten. He said,
- 36:48Speaker 1: here's one hundred and twenty one different leads that you
- 36:51Speaker 1: could follow up on that you could have followed up
- 36:53Speaker 1: on back then. You could have talked to this person
- 36:55Speaker 1: who saw this. You could have excavated this area. You
- 36:58Speaker 1: could have searched this place. You could have as it
- 37:00Speaker 1: did here. He could have talked to these owners, but
- 37:02Speaker 1: they never did. They never talked to any of them.
- 37:05Speaker 1: Detective Vanderwatt has been very vocal about allegations of the
- 37:08Speaker 1: irregularities with the police work from the original investigation and
- 37:12Speaker 1: the possibility of a cover up, and he's even made
- 37:15Speaker 1: claims that influential figures may have interfered in the police work,
- 37:18Speaker 1: which has left critical questions unanswered. While Detective Vanderwatt is
- 37:22Speaker 1: no longer directly involved in the case, he maintains that
- 37:25Speaker 1: a systematic, well resourced reinvestigation could potentially, he believes, finally
- 37:30Speaker 1: bring clarity to the case, honor those young child victims,
- 37:34Speaker 1: and provide long overdue answers to South Africa's authorities and
- 37:37Speaker 1: families that are still waiting for justice. But will this
- 37:40Speaker 1: ever actually happen? Sadly, I don't think so, because an
- 37:43Speaker 1: investigation into the missing girls hasn't been publicly documented or
- 37:47Speaker 1: even discussed since two thousand and seventeen, almost ten years ago. Now. Unfortunately,
- 37:53Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyen ended both his and Joey Horfts and
- 37:57Speaker 1: took their secrets with them to the grave. The deaths
- 38:00Speaker 1: of those two closed the chapter on this disturbing series
- 38:03Speaker 1: of events and practically created a stone wall preventing anyone
- 38:07Speaker 1: from ever being able to get real direct answers about
- 38:10Speaker 1: the fate of those young girls that the couple and
- 38:14Speaker 1: in all likelihood either sold off to or murdered. What
- 38:18Speaker 1: remains is a tangled web of confirmed crime survivors, testimonies,
- 38:23Speaker 1: and chilling theories that continued to haunt South Africa decades later.
- 38:26Speaker 1: Gert van Ruyan and Joey Harroff were not merely isolated predators.
- 38:30Speaker 1: They were part of a system that many believe extended
- 38:33Speaker 1: into the highest echelons of power, a network that would
- 38:36Speaker 1: have implicated politicians, prominent figures, and even state officials in
- 38:40Speaker 1: a much broader, much wider Allegations of cover ups withheld evidence,
- 38:46Speaker 1: missing evidence, and mismanaged investigations have fueled suspicions over the
- 38:50Speaker 1: years that Gert and Joey's crimes were protected or overlooked
- 38:54Speaker 1: on purpose, which has left families without closure and a
- 38:57Speaker 1: nation grappling with a disturbing, dark, unresolved story. Despite this,
- 39:02Speaker 1: investigators like Marcel Vanderwatt have shown that the case was
- 39:05Speaker 1: far from exhausted. His findings in twenty ten and forward
- 39:09Speaker 1: pointed to the irregularities. He exposed, the unanswered leads, and
- 39:13Speaker 1: he also showed the possibility that vital information about Gert
- 39:17Speaker 1: van Ruyin's activities could still be uncovered. Physical sites tied
- 39:20Speaker 1: to Van Ruyin continue to fuel speculation about the whereabouts
- 39:24Speaker 1: of the victim's remains, and survivor's stories, including those who
- 39:27Speaker 1: claim to have escaped. Van Ruyen and Horroff, add layers
- 39:30Speaker 1: of horror and complexity to the story, revealing these systemic
- 39:34Speaker 1: manipulation and that may have extended well beyond what was
- 39:38Speaker 1: officially recorded. I mean, they have less than ten victims,
- 39:41Speaker 1: but who knows if they were targeting these underprivileged off
- 39:45Speaker 1: the beaten path villages and asking for young girls from
- 39:48Speaker 1: rural areas to be brought to them, Who knows how
- 39:50Speaker 1: many victims these two really head. Ultimately, the Van Ruyan
- 39:54Speaker 1: Horroff case is more than a story of two dangerous criminals.
- 39:58Speaker 1: It's a cautionary tale of institute utional failure, of unanswered questions,
- 40:02Speaker 1: and of a society struggle to confront the darkest corners
- 40:05Speaker 1: of its disturbing history, The true scope of their crimes
- 40:08Speaker 1: and the full extent of the networks they may have
- 40:10Speaker 1: been involved in remains unknown. Families are still waiting for justice.
- 40:14Speaker 1: South Africa is still seeking truth, and investigators continue to
- 40:17Speaker 1: pursue leads whenever they emerge. Hopefully, While Van Ruyn and
- 40:21Speaker 1: Harroff may have taken their secrets to the grave, the
- 40:23Speaker 1: quest to uncover them and to finally provide answers for
- 40:26Speaker 1: the victims and their families remains very much alive. So
- 40:30Speaker 1: my thoughts on the whole story. As you know, I
- 40:32Speaker 1: believe in these stories. In any case like this, What
- 40:35Speaker 1: do you say to this? They're linked to all these
- 40:37Speaker 1: missing young children. The authorities, even though there were tons
- 40:40Speaker 1: of girls going missing in a very short period of time,
- 40:43Speaker 1: they never seem to place any priority or stock in
- 40:46Speaker 1: the investigation back then, which obviously would be the very
- 40:49Speaker 1: beginning of a cover up theory. No one's ever found
- 40:52Speaker 1: the girls, no one's ever found their remains. They've excavated
- 40:55Speaker 1: plenty of locations, they found the unidentified remains of another
- 40:59Speaker 1: teenage girl, part of her remains, like severed parts of
- 41:02Speaker 1: her body, and yet there's still no answers. I don't
- 41:06Speaker 1: think there's necessarily any major evidence that would point to
- 41:10Speaker 1: anything satanic involved in this story, aside from some testimony.
- 41:14Speaker 1: But the fact remains that these girls are gone and
- 41:17Speaker 1: they've never been found, and there are connections to high
- 41:20Speaker 1: profile individuals and powerful figures that were never explored. Owners
- 41:25Speaker 1: that saw these people in the meeting with Gert van
- 41:28Speaker 1: Ruyin saying that they were interested in children, and it's like,
- 41:31Speaker 1: you have all these leads, why don't they investigate them?
- 41:33Speaker 1: Why don't they step in and say, We're gonna provide
- 41:36Speaker 1: some closure here, let's figure out what the hell happened
- 41:38Speaker 1: to these little girls. But you see this time and
- 41:41Speaker 1: time again in so many of these cases, Sadly, the
- 41:44Speaker 1: only ones that seem to ever try to keep these
- 41:46Speaker 1: stories alive are podcasters and authors and investigative journalists. Sadly,
- 41:53Speaker 1: it's never really the authorities. It seems like they just,
- 41:56Speaker 1: time and time again throughout all of these stories that
- 41:58Speaker 1: I've covered, give up on these victims after a certain
- 42:01Speaker 1: period of time, and then that's it and they're forgotten.
- 42:04Speaker 1: I'm never going to forget them, and that's why I'm
- 42:06Speaker 1: going to continue making these videos and making this podcast
- 42:09Speaker 1: and telling these stories and digging into these stories that
- 42:12Speaker 1: a lot of people don't want to dig into. Some
- 42:14Speaker 1: people think it's too dark. Some people say that I
- 42:16Speaker 1: shouldn't be telling these stories, that I shouldn't be talking
- 42:18Speaker 1: about this. But to them, I say, I am going
- 42:20Speaker 1: to continue because no one else will. And it's really
- 42:24Speaker 1: sad to me, it's really deeply disturbing, really sad. And
- 42:27Speaker 1: hopefully by raising awareness throughout so many of these videos,
- 42:30Speaker 1: people can, you know, one day realize that their government
- 42:33Speaker 1: is lying to them, their governments are not truthful. This
- 42:36Speaker 1: has happened so many times. People don't understand the scope
- 42:39Speaker 1: of how many times this has happened and will continue
- 42:42Speaker 1: to happen if we don't actually start paying attention to
- 42:45Speaker 1: these things and solving these crimes and holding these people
- 42:48Speaker 1: accountable this history. As time goes on, in decades, you know,
- 42:52Speaker 1: we go decades into the future, evidence will continue to die,
- 42:55Speaker 1: Victims will continue to die, and that's going to be it. Also,
- 42:58Speaker 1: don't forget to like this video, le me a comment,
- 43:01Speaker 1: letting me know your thoughts on this case, letting me
- 43:03Speaker 1: know your theory on what may have happened here. And
- 43:06Speaker 1: if you're not subscribed, please be sure to subscribe to
- 43:09Speaker 1: the channel. It helps so much, share the videos, and yeah,
- 43:12Speaker 1: just interact with the videos. It shows these platforms that
- 43:15Speaker 1: you're watching or listening and that you care about these stories.
- 43:19Speaker 1: But anyways, y'all, thank you so much for listening to
- 43:22Speaker 1: today's episode for joining me. My name is Colin Brown.
- 43:25Speaker 1: I will see you guys next week. Keep that tinfoil
- 43:28Speaker 1: hat on always, stay suspicious, question everything, and I'll catch
- 43:32Speaker 1: y'all on the next one.