Cape Town - Three men appeared in the Western Cape High Court for the murder of 16-year-old Berodine Boyce in St Helena Bay.
Elroy Galant, Sheldon Christians and Duran Snyders have been charged with the teen’s murder after she was found behind the Laingville sports ground on July 12, 2018.
The teen had been missing for days before her body was found in a shallow grave with only a T-shirt over her face.
Boyce was last seen visiting a friend as she left her aunt’s house on July 6, 2018. Three days later she was reported missing.
The men have been charged with four counts of kidnapping, rape, murder and defeating the ends of justice.
The State alleged that the accused held Boyce captive in an informal dwelling belonging to Snyders and that Boyce was raped before she was murdered.
The cause of death has been determined as blunt force trauma with head injury and a stab wound to her neck, with probable sexual assault. It is alleged that the accused either hit or stabbed Boyce to death.
The State alleged that the accused buried the body in an open field with the intention of obstructing the course of justice by tampering with the crime scene.
It is the State’s case that Boyce was seen in the company of the accused on the day she went missing and later the men were seen carrying a “female person” near the area where Boyce’s body was found.
Snyders was previously convicted for the murder of a man who had apparently been speaking about his alleged involvement in Boyce’s murder. He was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment for murder in the Vredenburg Regional Court.
The matter has been postponed to August 29, when the trial is expected to start.