Teen accused of magistrate’s death carried her casket at her funeral

The teenager who was arrested for the murder of Cape Town magistrate Romay van Rooyen in actually her nephew.

It is reported that he was part of the pallbearers who had carried her casket to its final resting place just a day before he was arrested.


 

 

Cassidy Hartzenberg, 18, cut a lonely figure in the dock of the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

It is still not clear how he was linked to the crime but earlier reports suggested that Van Rooyen’s family believed that the person who carried out the attack was actually a family member.

Two days after his arrest at his home in Mitchells Plain, Hartzenberg heard that he would remain in jail until his next court appearance on 6 October.

He is being represented by a Legal Aid representative and intends to apply for bail.

Many others feared that her murder might have been linked to her line of work.

Police Minister Bheki Cele, who attended the court proceedings, said Van Rooyen died of a lack of oxygen, which was believed to have been caused by suffocation.