{"id":21515,"date":"2024-03-25T13:27:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T11:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=21515"},"modified":"2024-03-25T13:27:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T11:27:52","slug":"former-south-african-police-service-head-profiler-on-the-murder-that-stands-out-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2024\/03\/25\/former-south-african-police-service-head-profiler-on-the-murder-that-stands-out-the-most\/","title":{"rendered":"Former South African Police Service Head Profiler on the Murder That \u201cStands Out The Most\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Original Sin: My Son The Killer <\/em>is now streaming on Showmax, with Sarie<\/em>‘s Marteli Brewis <\/em>hailing the true-crime documentary as \u201cpoignant\u201d and Cape Talk’s Sara-Jayne King praising it as \u201cabsolutely gripping viewing.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Showmax Original follows Thea Pretorius, the mother of Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren, who murdered his 25-year-old girlfriend Andrea Venter in front of her neighbours, security guards and CCTV cameras. He then escaped authorities in South Africa and Brazil for years, assuming three different identities and starting families with multiple women. After initially helping him escape, Thea slowly had to come to terms with her son being a killer. As she admits in the trailer, \u201cHe\u2019s capable of worse things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former South African Police Service head profiler Dr G\u00e9rard Labuschagne worked on hundreds of murder cases but says in the true-crime documentary, \u201cThis was definitely one of the more brutal ones that I\u2019ve seen\u2026 This was definitely in the realm of what we regard as overkill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says Andrea\u2019s story shows how hard it can be to leave an abusive relationship. \u201cWe all think the victim should just get up and leave,\u201d he says, but \u201cpeople get sucked up into this web of violence. And sometimes it\u2019s the outright fear of this person, that, \u2018If I leave, he is going to kill me.\u2019 She did leave, and he tracked her down. She did take out a protection order, but the police did nothing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretorius also appears in Showmax’s Tracking Thabo Bester<\/em> and Boetie Boer <\/em>documentaries but he says this is the case that \u201cstands out the most\u201d in his career. \u201cI finally left the police on the first of March, 2016. People asked me which was the case in your career that stands out the most, and I guess people often expect me to say a serial killer case, because I worked on lots of those. Or, you know, a really weird, bizarre murder, but it was this one\u2026 Because of the unfinished business and unfairness of it all. It just felt personal, and I think a lot of people in the case felt the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original Sin<\/em> is directed by John Gutierrez, whose credits include Sons of the Sea, <\/em>which won the <\/em>Best South African Film at Durban, and editing the Grammy-winning Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin\u2019 Down a Dream.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original Sin<\/em>\u2019s cat and mouse chase across two continents is interwoven with CCTV footage of Andrea\u2019s murder; footage from Gerhard\u2019s trials; and interviews with both their families, as well as the Brazilian Federal Police, Rio de Janeiro Interpol and the South African police and legal teams on the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documentary feature is a co-production between Showmax, Rogan Productions (BAFTA winner Uprising<\/em>, BAFTA nominees Freddie Mercury: The Final Act <\/em>and Putin: A Russian Spy Story<\/em>), and The Electric Shadow Company (BAFTA nominee McQueen, <\/em>Hot Docs Jury winner Name Me Lawand<\/em>), in association with Combined Artists (Strangers You Know, Carte Blanche<\/em>) and Red Earth\u00a0(Narcoworld: Dope Stories<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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