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Simply search Unsolved Murders Essay, subscribe to our channel and turn our notifications to stay abreast with every upload. We are a self funded media startup so if you enjoy our content, buying us a cup of coffee is one way to help us grow. Thank you in advance for your support. Understanding the mind of a person who targets minors for sex crimes is a complex and sensitive area of study. Such individuals often exhibit a range of psychological, social, and environmental factors that
contribute to their behavior. Many individuals who target minors for sex crimes have pedophilic disorder. Pedophilic disorder is a psychiatric condition characterized by an enduring sexual attraction to prepubescent children. It's considered a paraphernic disorder, which means it involves a typical sexual
interests or behaviors. It's essential to understand that not everyone with a sexual interest in minors meets the criteria for this disorder, as it requires specific clinical features and distress or impairment in functioning.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM 5, which is used by mental health professionals for diagnosis, the key criteria for paedophilic disorder include recurrent intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges or behaviours involving prepubescent children.
Typically under the age of 13. The person has acted on these urges or experiences significant distress or impairment in daily life due to these attractions and the person is at least 16 years old and at least five years older than the child or children they are attracted to. Pedophilic disorder is further categorized into two subtypes. Exclusive type which means the person is exclusively attracted to children or non exclusive type, the person is attracted to both children and adults.
Norman Afzal Simons, the subject of this episode falls somewhere in the Gray area that separates these two subtypes. Simons tried much to his anguish to mask his deep seated lust for minors. For the most part of his adult life he was intelligent. His colleagues and neighbors described him as a friendly and unassuming person.
However, bubbling beneath the surface of that veil, they one of South Africa's most sadistic and bruthless killers, who, all factors considered, may have outwitted the country's feeble justice system. There are conflicting records of Norman Afsar Simons's background, but based on court documents we obtained, here's what we know about his past.
In his writings later recognized that trial as admissible confessions, Simons revealed that he was born on January 27th, 1967 in Greenpoint, Cape Town. His mother and father were of different ethnic groups.
Simons was brought up as a closa growing up in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape Province. Professor Zabo, the psychiatrist who examined Simons at Falkenburg Hospital shortly after he was arrested, wrote in his report that he came from a disruptive background characterized by frequent changes in residents and schools during his childhood.
While it's unclear if his mother was aware of his mental condition, Simons had a personality disorder that manifested into severe instances of depression later on in his life. Records show he periodically received short term treatment for his condition, which for the most part was ineffective without the existence of primary dodge from the horse's mouth, or at the very least insiders with intimate knowledge. Piercing together a chronological timeline of Simon's history of mental health
was a tall order. However, from the research we conducted, we determined that somewhere in his childhood, a series of events with severe traumatic repercussions molded the disturbed mind of the man believed to be the station Strangler. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Simons's parents were most probably ignorant of his mental health issues.
In a statement he wrote the days after he was arrested, Simons revealed that in response to a series of episodes linked to his mental disorder, his parents performed A ritual that involved slaughtering a goat and amputating his and his sister's ring fingers. Of course, the custom had little to no impact on his mental wellbeing. In fact, in the letter, Simons revealed that much of his sexual deviance was grown by a neighbour and old woman who he claimed had placed an evil spot on him.
She actually portrayed my future to me, he wrote. While he did not go into detail about the things the neighbour did to him, Simons did reveal that she planted dirt in him. He said this was a main element in most of his deeds, as she had planted the darkness in him. He returned to Cape Town in 1982 and moved into his mother's house. His stepfather was also a Prosser and he never really knew
his biological father. Simons also had a stepbrother who exerted a lot of influence on his sexual deviance. By 1983, Simons was subjected to repeated acts of sexual abuse and sodomy inflicted by his stepbrother in his writings. Simons identified this stage of his life as the foundation of his sexual fixation with minors. By the time he was in the trick, Simon succumbed to his inhibitions and kicked off his
killing spree. He said that he had acted in response to the voice of his brother inside him. It's believed Simons claimed his first victim in 1986. The decomposing body of 14 year old Jonathan Classen was discovered near Mudder Drum Station in Belleville S on Friday, October 3rd, 1986. Pieces of Classen's clothing were tightly wrapped around his neck and hands which were bound behind his back. A forensic examination determined that the teenage boy was sodomized and died from
strangulation. Naturally, at the time, Cape Town police had no clue that for the next 8 years they'd be reeled into a sordid cat's mouse chase with a sadistic child predator. Three months later, on Wednesday, January 7th, 1987, ten year old Yusuf Hoffmann's badly decomposed body was discovered in bushes situated near sewage plant in Mitchell's plane.
Investigators noted that his body too was found in a similar position, face planted in the sand with pieces of his clothing tightly wrapped around his neck and hands, still without the necessary communication resources. At the time, police had not established a link between the
two cases. However, this change drastically when on Friday, January 23rd 1987, two weeks after Hoffman's discovery, the decomposing body of Mario Thomas, a 13 year old from Mannenburg, was found in a field in Sarepta near Kills River. It might be that at the time police were not necessarily looking into the three cases as a string of murders committed by single person or group. However, it was established early that the crime scenes boy's striking resemblance, the bodies were all badly
decomposed. There were signs of sodomy and all of the victims who struggled with pieces of their clothing. The absence of documentation of Simons's life in this period made it impossible to add greater context to this timeline. However, it can be reasonably assumed that his stepbrother still exerted a great deal of influences in his life. In 1987, Simons was presumably 17 years old and possibly a high school or early college student studying toward a qualification in teaching.
Existing records show that Simons was very intelligent. People who knew him later testified in his trial that he spoke 7 languages including English, Afrikaans, Crossa and French, albeit our research could not establish this as a fact. Alas, if we are to believe that Simon's was the station strangler, then his fourth victim, a boy whose identity remains unknown, was discovered on Thursday April 9th 1987 around the same area.
Clausen's body was found in a bushy area near Motor Dam Station Bowval S The remains of his 5th victim, 12 year old Freddie Cleaves, were discovered in a ditch nearby Hart Station on Friday June 26th, 1987. Two months later, on Tuesday August 25th, 1987, the decomposing body of 15 year old Samuel GABA was discovered in the same area.
By the time his 7th victim was found, an unidentified preteen whose remains were discovered near Modern Dam station on Thursday, October 1st, 1987, a wave of fear exacerbated by news headlines warning of a serial killer targeting children had spread across the Cape Flats. Interestingly, The Stranger went dark for four months before the 2nd wave of his killing spree began with the discovery of nine year old Calvin Spiro's body near the Unibal Station in Baja on Monday, February 8th, 1988.
Bizarrely, the Strangler went dark for over a year and according to existing records, claimed his 9th victim, 11 year old Denver Gazoo, whose body was found at the surreptestation on Saturday November 11th, 1989. Once again, almost three years passed with no gruesome sightings of The Stranglers
victims. Perhaps by then Simons had buried his urges far enough to complete his teaching qualification and enroll as a Grade 5 teacher at Alpine Primary School, an environment certainly unsuitable for a deranged child killer. An important event occurred in Simons's life before he went on his third and final wave of killings. Again, this is based on the presumption that he is the station strangler. In 1991 his stepbrother, who was described as a loose cannon and
an alcoholic, was murdered. In his later writings, Simons revealed he had already been suppressing the haunting voice of the old lady who had deflowered him back in Queenstown. Perhaps this woman's voice had instructed him to murder nine children before the death of his stepbrother. Alas, according to Simon's, his stepbrother spirit haunted him too, egging him to sodomize and
murder more children. Sure enough, on Tuesday, October 27th, 1992 the body of 11 year old Yakobis Lao was discovered on Nandi Beach's Dunes near Mitchell's Plain. On Thursday, January 13th, 1994, a municipal worker came across the body of an unidentified boy in the Valta Frioda doings in Mitchell's Plain. During the following two weeks, more bodies were found strong among the dunes. The killer's pace had accelerated to 11 victims in one
month. The body of Elino Sprinkle, 11 was discovered on Thursday, January 20th, 1994. Four days later, on Tuesday, January 25th, 1994, the bodies of Donovan Swartz, 10, and Jeremy Benjamin, 12, were found lying about 20 meters apart. The next portion of this recording is an account of events written by Mickey Pistorius, author of Stranglers on the Street Serial Homicide in South Africa, a gripping book that explores several cases which you can purchase online for as little as 135 grand.
In the book, Prestorius wrote, the community of Mitchell's plane became hysterical after these discoveries and joined members of the South African police force in a search party the following weekend. Their search led to the gruesome discovery of eight more bodies and January 26th, 1994 the body of Jeremy Smith, 13 was found and on January 27th, 1994 the bodies of Marcelino Cupido, 9 Neville Samai, 14, an unidentified young boy and an adult male were found.
The bodies of best friends, 8 year old Fabian Willomore and 11 year old Owen Hofmeister were discovered lying side by side. They had been strangled with each other's clothing. Another unidentified boy, fully clothed was found in the dunes. He was lying on his back and his hands had been tied with nylon cord. He had been strangled with the same cord. His underpants were found
nearby. At this stage the station Stranglers victims totaled 21. The community of Mitchell's plane gathered at the local police station, demanding the station stranglers head. They formed vigilante groups and any man seen in the company of a young boy feared for his life. As angry mobs chased suspicious looking individuals into the dunes, the community stormed the Steinberg police station, broke down fences, and demolished private homes if they thought a
suspect might be hiding there. They formed units that spend days and nights searching the sewers beneath Mitchell's plane, and they patrolled school grounds. Learners were lectured on the dangers of being approached by strangers and school schedules were changed to enable younger children to be accompanied home by the older children. In the churches. Congregations prayed for the souls of the victims and for their families.
The families of the victims buried their sons and grieved, some in private and some in public. At night, though, police still spotted youngsters walking alone on the streets. The Mitchell's Plain community turned to the South African police force for help and the
police responded to their call. A single detective from the Murder and Robbery Unit, Warrant Officer Reggie Shoulders, had investigated the earlier murders, which started in 1986, but he had since retired, leaving the cases unsolved. In February 1994, a 14 man special task team dubbed the Stration Strangler Squad was established. The team was led by Lieutenant Johann Kutzy under the supervision of the commander of the Cape Peninsula Murder and Robbery Unit, Colonel Leonard Nipe.
The team operated from the yard of the Mitchell Plain police station. 3 police caravans parked in the lawn served as officers for the task team. The parade room of the police station was converted into an operations room and its walls were lined with maps and details about the victims, the crime scenes and suspects. It was also fitted out with a computer for processing incoming data.
The investigation became more focused and previously unheard of. Support, such as forensic psychologists, was seconded to the team. These were luxuries that had not been available to shoulders during the 1980s. The Strangler squad was inundated with approximately 300 calls a day from the community, all of them offering names of possible suspects.
Up to 2000 suspects were interviewed and interrogated between February and April 1994. Thousands of criminal records were perused and all the information in the earlier dockets was followed up once more. Detectives even interviewed convicted child abuses to get to know more about their modus operandi. A psychological profile of the suspect was drawn up by a police psychologist. The profile described the suspect as a mixed race man between the ages of 25 and 35
years old. He would be bilingual, a single man, probably living with his family, and he would be a homosexual. He was described as an intelligent man who dressed very neatly, and he would probably be a teacher, preacher, policeman or social worker who preferred the company of children to that of adults. He would be a local who lived in Mitchell's Plain and would probably own a vehicle which he would often have resprayed in a
different color. It was likely that as a boy, the suspect would have been sexually abused by a family member. The profile was released to the community by the media. The Strangler Squad used the profile to eliminate the thousands of suspects who did not match it. The detectives were under tremendous pressure. The community wanted revenge and had to be restrained when they
turned violent. Politicians tried to use the investigation as a tool in the 1994 election campaigns, and the media watched the police's every move. During the investigation. Detectives visited schools to
warn the children. They gave feedback to the families and community leaders, and they attended the funerals of the children, the diversity, other cases of child abuse to the Child Protection Unit. They listened to the psychics, and they even halted a robbery in progress, which happened to take place in their presence. They patrolled the dunes looking for more bodies and searched for and found missing children. Those who were of duty on weekends brought in food for
their colleagues. The 14 men worked 24 hour shifts for three months. The pace of the investigation did not slap him for a moment. Meetings were held twice daily to keep everyone fully briefed. Tragically, the station stranglers undoing came at the cost of another life. He's 22nd and final victim was 10 year old Alroy Van Royen in the morning of Saturday, March 19th, 1994. The call the detectives dreaded most came through. Another body had been found at claim Flay bordering Mitchell's
plane. The detectives gathered at the scene within minutes. There were no doubt that this was another of The Stranglers victims. The body of the young boy was lying face down with his hands tied behind his back and his tracks and pants were tied around his neck. The task team was devastated. The crowd gathered and someone alerted the press who spotted the members of the Strangler squad and drew the correct
conclusion. The body was soon identified as that of 10 year old Alroy Van Royan from Strand, a town further down the coast. Alroy's grandmother identified him she had reportedly missing a week before his body was
discovered. Alroy was last seen alive in the company of his cousin Rhino in and around a shopping center situated near Strand train station on Friday, March 11th, 1994. According to Rhino, he and Alroy were approached by a man who offered them money to help him carry empty cord with boxes to the train station. At first, Rhino agreed and took off with Alroy and the unknown
man. However, along the way Rauner's unease in the company of the man triggered his sixth sense and he ran off, leaving his cousin behind who was none the wiser. Tragically, the 10 year old's body was found near the train
station. A witness, Mrs. Fuzia Hercules, played a crucial role in not only aiding with the discovery of Simons as the likely murder suspect, but also his conviction for the murder of Alroy. After learning of Alroy's death, Mrs. Hercules approached investigators with information about the events that unfolded before her eyes.
The day Alroy went missing, Mrs. Hercules told investigators that she took a good look at the man she saw speaking to Al Roy and Rhino. She and Rhino worked with the Strangler Task team to develop and identicate. Court records later showed that Mrs. Hercules's attention to detail was key in developing an identicate that led to the arrest of Simons. It's written that she was so obsessed with the suspect's description that only the 3rd
identicate satisfied her. Weeks went by without a solid lead from the identical, which was widely released in newspapers, then alerted by a nurse at a private psychiatric clinic, the detectives pulled in a suspect on the evening of Tuesday, April 12th, 1994, after having kept him under observation for a few days. They warned him of his rights and asked him to accompany them to the caravans at the police station, which he did voluntarily.
The suspect was 27 year old Afsal Sarfaraz Norman Simons, an unmarried school teacher who lived with his mother in Mitchell's Plain. He was described by his friends as a neatly dressed homosexual who owned a car which had recently resprayed. Simons volunteered to write down his life story and was given a pen and paper. He said he was an inpatient at the clinic that he could not return to the clinic that evening because the doors were already locked. He did not want to return home
either. The detectives offered him one of the caravans to sleep in. At noon on April 13th, 1994, Lieutenant Kutzie formally arrested Simons in connection with the Mitchell's plane cases, but not the claim Flake case. On April 14th, 1994, an identity parade was held and Simons was identified by Mrs. Hercules. Court records show that Mrs. Hercules's attention to detail was yet again crucial in
disarming the defense at trial. When she spotted Simons in the parade line, she specifically instructed investigators to make him turn to the side. After carefully observing his side profile, she remarked that he was possibly the man she saw speaking to the two boys, but she did not leave her contributions there. She recalled that Rhino had revealed any statement that the man had instructed him and Alroy
to walk fast. Mrs. Hercules asked investigators to instruct Simons to repeat the words. When he did, she made him walk away with his back turned toward her. Another man in the parade line had caught her attention, but something about Simons sent chills down her spine. After careful consideration and noticing that the suspect had changed his hairstyle since she last saw him, Mrs. Hercules rested on her assertion that the man she saw speaking to Albo and Rhino was Simons.
Rhino said that he also recognized Simons, but was too scared to point him out as the murderer of his cousin. On April 15th, 1994, the detectives realized they did not have enough evidence to charge Simons with the Mitchell's plane cases and released him but immediately rearrested him in connection with the Alroy case. Simon said that he wished to make a confession and was taken to a magistrate to whom he confessed to having killed children since 1986.
He did not elect to have an attorney present. On Saturday, April 16th, 1994, Simons was taken to Falkenburg Psychiatric Hospital to say psychiatrist since Colonel Knight was concerned about his mental state. When the Colonel interrogated Simons, he had claimed that in killing the children he was acting on the orders of his deceased brother. Simons admitted that he had been sodomized by his older brother when he was the same age as his
victims. The psychiatrist found that Simons was not suffering from mental illness, but that he had a personality disorder. Simons then retracted his first confession and claimed to be innocent. He gave an alibi statement which was proved to be false. During his trial on Sunday April 17th, 1994, Simons called Kutsi and said that he wanted to make a second confession. During the interrogation that day, he actually demonstrated to the detectives how he had managed to kill two boys at the
same time. He was taken to another magistrate that evening to make his second confession. After the confession, he proceeded to point out all the crime scenes to Lieutenant Mike Barkhasan. This pointing out, took place during the early hours of the morning of Monday, April 18th, 1994. While the community of Mitchell's plane was still asleep, the Station Strangler Squad followed Barkhasan's vehicle at a distance to provide backup in case the community woke up and harassed the suspect.
Later that morning, Simons was charged in court for the first time. The rest of the subject did not herald the end of the detective's duties. They had to take statements and follow up on the background details of the suspect, but mercifully, the pressure had abated and they could focus their attention on only one man.
Months later, the Strangler squad was disbanded and one by one they returned to their former stations, except for Kutshi, Warrant Officer Dave de Villiers and Sergeant A J Oliver, who had to prepare the case for trial for them. The strain ended only a year later when the judge found Simons guilty. The case was referred to the Office of the Attorney General of the Western Cape. At first, it was received negatively because of the lack
of evidence. In the initial cases, the bodies were badly decomposed and had been lying in the sun between the dunes for months. It is characteristic of organized serial killers not to leave any evidence. Eventually, senior state advocate Mike Stall and his colleague Annette Dalanga volunteered to take on the case.
They decided not to charge Simons with the Mitchell's plane cases, but with the kidnapping, indecent assault and murder of Alroy von Royne. The trial began on Monday, February 27th, 1995. Advocate Korth Lowe was appointed by attorney Reuben Little to act as defense counsel and Mr. Justice Fund, the Venter and two assessors, Mr. J Boyson and Advocate C Williams, presided. The trial was riddled with postponements and dragged on for
months. The accused was often late for court because of a strike at the prison. The detectives were grilled under cross examination. Kutsie was in the witness box for four days during what became a trial. Within a trial, the admissibility of the confessions and Simons's tour of the crime scenes were put to the test. The accused refused to testify. He sat quietly during the trial, taking notes and giving instructions to his defense counsel.
Sometimes he clicked his tongue irritably when he did not agree with the testimony of the detectives. He never claimed to have been abused by any of them. In fact, in his confession, Simons expressed his remorse for the murders and also thanked the detectives by name for arresting him. Simons had realized that he needed help, and from 1991 he booked himself into various psychiatric clinics and institutions for treatment for
depression. His diagnosis was adjustment disorder with depressive moods, personality disorders, and depression. They seemed to have been an informal correlation between the times he committed himself to these institutions and the times of the murders. During the trial, the defense tried to indicate that he suffered from this associative personality disorder and hypomania, but they failed to establish this.
Simons had problems with his ethnic, religious and sexual identities, but he was an educated man who spoke 7 languages, including French. He liked classical music, he loved his vocation as a teacher, and by all accounts he was good at it. Disturbingly, his grade five class adored him and he was respected by his colleagues. Although one of his victims was a pupil from his school, the boy
was not in any of his classes. Simons was a volunteer at the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders or Micro, an organization that assists ex convicts to adjust to society. He helped out in religious groups and he had a few good friends. He preferred the company of children and would often take them swimming in the ocean and treat them to ice cream.
On the morning of March 11th, 1994, hours before he sodomized and murdered Alref van Royen, Simons had his picture taken to the list as a police reservist to help in the investigation of the Station Strangler. Had it not been for his dark secret, Simons would have been a respected member of the Mitchell's plane community who made an active contribution to the upliftment of his fellow men.
In his final confession, he wished all citizens a successful first democratic election and asked for peace in South Africa. The case was postponed to May 31st, 1995 for final argument. The atmosphere in court was tense. The victim's family, the mothers of other victims and residents of Mitchell's plane, and friends and family of the accused sat
silently in the court gallery. Eventually, after months of grueling testimonies and delays, Simons was found guilty of kidnapping and killing Alroy. For the kidnapping charge, Simons was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and 25 years for
murder. The sentences ran concurrently the entire time Simons proclaimed his innocence and even wrote to Elroy's grandmother denying his involvement in the death of a beloved grandson, The mothers of Jonathan Yusuf, Mario Freddy, Samuel Culver, Denver Yocubus, Jeremy, Benjamin, Marcelino and Lino Fabian, Owen Donovan, Jeremy Smith and Neville remain without closure on what happened to their children, despite the existence of strong circumstantial evidence linking Simons to the crimes.
In 1998, Simons's attempt to appeal his conviction was really dismissed by a panel of judges who instead adjusted the 25 year imprisonment to a life sentence. Following Simons's conviction, the South African Police Service established the Investigative Psychology Unit to deal mainly with serial killer cases. To this day, Murder and Robbery Unit detectives are trained annually by the Psychology Unit using resources collected during the Station Stranglers investigation.
Simons, the accused but not convicted Station Strangler, was released on parole on Thursday, July 20th, 2023 under strict conditions. The Department of Correctional Services assured Mitchell's Plain residents during a community meeting that Simons would be subject to stringent monitoring and restrictions upon his release. According to Ronnie Biller, the Head of Community Corrections for the Bowville area, Simons will be placed under 24 hour
house arrest. The parole conditions dictate that he must not have any contact with children at an official from the Department of Correctional Services will visit his residence 8 times per month. Additionally, Simons will require permission from the department to engage with the media. The news of Simons's upcoming release has reopened old wounds within the Mitchell's playing
community. Norman Yankees, the chairperson of the Mitchell's Playing Community Policing Forum, addressed residents during the community engagement, stressing the need to give Simons an opportunity to reintegrate into society and seek forgiveness for the community's past trauma. Yankees acknowledged the pain caused by Simons, but also emphasized the importance of providing a chance for
rehabilitation. Has Simons rehabilitated from the demons that he claimed drove him to kill at least 22 children with his recent parole? Was just a serve to the families of the children whose murders remain unsolved. This brings us to the end of our episode. If you enjoyed our podcast, please consider giving us a star rating. We appreciate all the feedback and it helps us improve the quality of our podcast.
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