By Anna Shilongo
WINDHOEK
Jacoba Olivier, the supposed victim of the elusive ‘B1 Butcher’, is alive. Jacoba Wilma Olivier who has been feared dead, yesterday reunited with her mother.
For weeks now, her mother, Martha Olivier, has presumed her daughter dead after she wrongly identified body parts belonging to one of the ‘B1 Butcher’ victims as those of her daughter.
At a press conference in Windhoek yesterday, police spokesperson, Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, said the body parts said to be those of Olivier were wrongly identified.
“As you can see, Olivier is alive and she reunited with her mother, She is not a B1 victim as was reported earlier. The police would like to apologise for any inconvenience,” said Amulungu.
He said the remains of the victim were mutilated adding that maybe that could have confused Olivier’s mother to assume it was her daughter.
A clearly confused Martha Olivier could not contain her joy at seeing her daughter alive.
“That’s my child that was missing, ooh, my Lord, I haven’t seen her in years and when I saw the picture, I assumed it was my Jacoba,” said Olivier’s mother wiping tears. She could, however, not stop crying when asked to express her feelings.
“I understand the situation and the circumstances that Olivier grew up in. She would go home once in a year while she was still at school and the last time she left the house was 2003. It was just a mistake of identity you can’t blame her,” said Police Commissioner Visser.
Visser confirmed that Olivier was hospitalised at Outjo during the past four days. Olivier was apparently hospitalised from October 10 to 14 at the Outjo District Hospital.
During her stay at the hospital, her boyfriend brought her a local newspaper that had an article about her supposed death. She apparently decided to walk out of the hospital and reported herself at the Outjo Police Station that she was not dead as indicated in the local newspapers.
As a result, the police contacted their regional office (Otjiwarongo), which later also informed the head office. They were then ordered to bring Olivier to Windhoek.
Before she was hospitalised, Olivier lived with her boyfriend at Camp Five, an informal settlement near Outjo, and despite several attempts by the police to locate anyone who knew or had last seen her, no one ever went to her to break the news until the moment she was hopitalised.
Olivier was also not in possession of any documents that could prove her identity. It now looks like the police have to go back to square one and start with identifying the human remains that were discovered at Grootfontein.
Amulungu has once again appealed to the public to come forward and identify the body parts at the police mortuary.
He said the results of tests carried out by the Director of the Forensic Science Institute, Dr Paul Ludik, were still in South Africa.
“I prefer to wait for the DNA test than comment without the results, it’s also only Dr Ludik who can confirm once the results are out,” he said.
Once the results are out, the spokesperson assured, the public will be the first to know, adding that they should never lose hope in the police as they were going to solve the case let alone the mistaken identity of Olivier.
He said the case could only be resolved once the public cooperate with the police. The N$110???_?_’???_?’???_???