All language subtitles for BOETIE.BOER.S01E04.720p.SMAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.x264_track3_[eng].1

(ominous music)

(ominous music)

(Veronica) As a reporter
during that '96, '97 year,

bones were found just behind
the old Port Elizabeth Hotel

near Happy Valley.

And it was quite a
stir up in the community

because it was thought that it
could be linked to Gert van Rooyen,

who was involved with the six girls
who went missing

and were still not found.

(Derrik) So we're turning
into Happy Valley.

This is the old place of dreams

where, as children, we'd play,

and parents would bring their kids,
synonymous with December

school holidays,
and the whole Christmas.

It would also be
the place where Stewart

would ultimately bring Wuané to...
to end her life.

(melancholic music)

(Derrik) Funny sort of feeling
coming here now, some years later.

Thinking about this 11 year old girl,

coming in the dark with Daddy,

someone she trusts,
completely innocent.

As she's walking in, it's
starting to get darker and darker.

She must have been getting scared.

She must have asked him questions,
but trusted and believed him.

After all, he's her father.
He murders his own little child.

I can just imagine the fear
going through her mind.

Absolute betrayal by
the person she trusts the most.

You know, if a kid can't trust
Daddy, who can-- who can she trust?

I often thought about what
Stewart was thinking at the time.

I got the chance to chat to him after
he made his confession about this.

His explanation is always
very sterile.

Yeah, as a father,
I'm just not a perfect person.

But...

fuck me, I can't see myself having
the guts or courage to ever do that.

Yeah, it's just unbelievable,
and I think it captures the

thought process of serial killers,

how actually out of touch
with reality they are.

How can you protect
your child by murdering them?

How do you justify your
actions with your own daughter?

Yeah, it just doesn't make sense.

And then this beautiful place
called the Happy Valley.

Imagine the absolute shock
to this poor child...

She's going to Happy Valley.

(Brett) Now, Happy Valley is
a place you take your children.

It's got beautiful characters
who had lovely cartoon characters

and lovely lights at night.
It's a fairyland.

And the fact that
a brutal murder by a father

of his 11 year old daughter
could take place in this,

like Disneyland,
was absolutely horrifying.

(Derrik) This is the one that
stands out to me the most.

And it's one I can
never make peace with myself.

So, yes, Wuané's sake, we..
we let go of her.

But I mean,
the reality is we failed her.

(dramatic music)

♪ Beware of the wolves my baby ♪

♪ They're spying for love ♪
♪ From the porch tonight ♪

♪ And as the light begins to dim ♪
♪ They'll start the skinning ♪

♪ Of your innocent body ♪
♪ Naked in the night ♪

♪ So come and shine your light ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Shine your light ♪

(eerie music)

(Derrik) So he's in the late '80s and
then leading into the early '90s.

Wilken has committed
his first murder by this point.

It's quite interesting
to look at his family dynamic.

The dynamic he finds himself
in which is quite complex,

to say the least.

He has his first wife, Lynn,
whom he's married with,

but separated from at this point.

He has two children
with her and a stepdaughter.

Then he's also involved
with a second wife, Veronica,

which starts while he's
still married to the first wife,

but then eventually after divorce,
leads in an actual marriage.

But he's got three children
from her as well.

And between all of this, he's got
what he calls his spare wheel,

the love of his life, Johanna Saul,
and she's basically a vagrant,

and he lives with her
in the bushes.

And Lynn, his first wife,
marries another man, Mike Loots,

also has two or three
children with him.

But Michael was working in an
abattoir at the time.

He was bringing in a steady income.

Stewart was able to
frequent the house,

basically as and when he wanted.

He was also able to have physical
relationships with Lynn at will.

It's really complex.
It's really a confusion,

and I was trying to
think of a good word to say,

but the only one I
can think of is a "cluster-fuck".

(Giada) What we know
about psychopathy,

is that it's a clinical diagnosis,

but there can be traits in people,

and people can very
much function in society.

They don't have to be violent,
insane, psycho-killers.

They do view people as
means to an end, as expedient.

Some can be charming, but it really
comes back to that core idea

that it's eat, or be eaten,

you know, and it's about your
survival all the time.

And some get off on
the games and the power

that they play with other people.

(Gérard) It was during this admission
at Elizabeth Donkin Hospital

where he's actually
prescribed Valium.

Now,
Valium is essentially a sedative.

So perhaps one could understand
that if they did diagnose him

as being a psychopath, there's
no medical treatment for that.

You are a psychopath for life,
and at best you can try

some psychological interventions
to manage the person's behaviour.

So the Valium probably
would have just been to

hopefully just calm him down.

So Lynn likes this because he
becomes more manageable.

He's literally half awake, which
means he's probably not gonna be

engaging in sexual violence, verbal
abuse, physical abuse towards her.

There's a story where he even
says at one point that, you know,

he was taking lots of Valium that
had been prescribed to him

and that he stopped
taking it to some degree,

but he wakes up one day and he finds
a policeman has come into the house.

He comes down the
stairs and finds the policeman,

and his wife then
ends up having sex on the couch,

which he then witnesses.

(tense music)

(breathing heavily)

(Lynn moaning)

(Gérard) Now is it again
a figment of his imagination

or is it his way of trying to
justify, you know,

his later behaviours?
We're not quite 100 precent sure.

So we have his whole
previous history which is perhaps

setting the stage for who Stewart
Wilken is going to become.

Now we have the more modern
interactions with, for example,

Lynn and other women,
which might be the final triggers

for his actual acting out of his--
of his behaviour.

(dramatic music)

(Ursula) She claimed that
she was scared of Stewart,

but when we had the interview
with her,

every time her current husband
was sitting with her,

so she didn't wanna
give all the information to us.

She actually mentioned that
Stewart was her keeper.

He took her out to make money.

He himself said that she went out
at night to sleep with other men.

It sounded more like Stewart
was making her a prostitute,

but when it came to the statement,

she didn't wanna put that
in the statement,

and she said she will never sign,

because she was scared
her current husband

is gonna read the statements.

(indistinct chatter)

(fast paced dramatic music)

They all were just so entwined in
each other's lives all the time,

that it is actually sick
to think about it.

(Michael) I grew up in
Forest View also,

and I worked by PE abattoir

from 1985 and as a slaughter-man.

So, it was bonus in December.

And, so my boet from Durban
came there, baby brother.

And he said to me,
"Mike, let's go on a jol."

And I said, "Okay."

And we went to this Red Lion Hotel.

-(snooker balls clattering)
-(indistinct chatter)

And it wasn't even a week after.

So she said, "Oh, we're married."

I said, "Okay, fine."

(chuckling) Because,
I mean, it was alright.

Because maybe we were
a month together, married.

So all of a sudden, he came there.

So I ask her, "Who's this guy?"

-I'm Michael.
-I'm Boetie. Boetie Boer.

And we smoked together, and okay,
we had a couple of shots together.

Because he likes his Klipdrift.

Then I said to him,
"Boetie, but...

You can't just come here,
we need to have a time.

-(Michael) Do you smoke?
-(Boetie Boer) Yes.

(Ursula) From everyone,
I think she knew that Stewart

was busy with prostitutes.

She wasn't aware of the murders,

but she knew that he
went out to see prostitutes.

She let him go away for months,

and then she doesn't go and to ask,
"Where's my husband."

He goes away,
and he goes to stay with somebody.

She doesn't go out and ask,
"Have you seen Stewart?"

She was too glad when he was gone.

But every time he comes back,

he just walks into the house
as if he's still there.

Even when Michael was there, he was
still just walking into the house

as if it was his house.

(Derrik) It also came from
information from Lynn's mom, Rita,

that at one point she indicated
to Stewart that Michael Loots

might have had sexual relations
with Wuané, his daughter.

This obviously would
not have sat well with Stewart,

as he had a deep passion for Wuané.

And he would inevitably deal
with the situation,

not like a normal human
being would,

but in the sickest depraved way
one could think of.

(Rita) Listen, I'm worried.
I need to tell you what Michael said.

(Boetie Boer) "Boetie,
Michael says if he can't fuck me,

he's gonna fuck your daughter."

(Rita) "If I can't fuck you,
I'm gonna fuck your daughter."

(dramatic music)

(Ursula) There were claims that Wuané
was raped by her current husband,

and she did nothing about that too.
So in my mind,

I saw a woman that was actually
pushing everything away

and putting it under the rug.

She lived her life
not wanting to deal with things.

(Giada) So,
in terms of Stewart Wilkens'

relationship with
his oldest daughter,

I think there was something...

there was something quite strange
for him, or around creating life.

If we think about his issues
with life and death and control,

it may have been that
she was quite idealized by him.

This could be someone
that was quite pure, that was good,

that was all the things
that he didn't feel himself to be.

So there might have
been a lot of hope and investment

in this idealized version of her.

So, when he discovers that
she's been almost tainted, spoiled,

sullied by her stepfather
in terms of being abused,

I imagine that was quite-- That was
really distressing for him to hear.

It-- it kind of spoiled
her completely for him.

(ominous music)

(Salomon) I think before the '90s,
the area of Sydenham,

Kensington, Sidwell,
and even in certain senses,

the Gelvandale area

was an easy area to stay in
because it was safe.

It had people that
cared for one another.

But with time and changing of
political powers,

it became more challenging.

People, I think, in the
greater sense were without hope,

and that caused a lot of problems,

especially for a school like
Dr Viljoen.

The Dr Viljoen community
is in a lower socio-economic area,

and I think when things got tough,

those are the people that
lost their job first, you know.

The children definitely
were impacted by the fact that

there wasn't a
safe house to go to anymore.

When I started at Dr Viljoen,
I started off as HOD,

which I taught in Grade Five.

Primary schools is more
female dominant,

but when you have a male

and you can utilise that male,

in a situation where
you have all females

to where the children look up to,

then the role of that male
is very important

because that, especially in
the area of Dr Viljoen's community,

you could be the manly figure

that in most cases
they don't get at home.

When Wuané came to my class,

I could immediately see that

this child had a tough upbringing.

I could see it in her eyes.

She had a very wild look.

She had difficulties in socialising
with the other children in the class.

But to be quite honest,
she didn't want to talk to me at all.

And she didn't trust nobody.

And when I walked out
of the staff room,

I saw her sitting in a little
corner socialising with nobody.

(melancholy music)

(melancholy music)

(Salomon) But after a month,
two months, three months,

I could see there was improvement.

She started making friends,
you know, she started being a child,

you know,
not this scared little person

just sitting in a corner, you know.

When the parents come to
enrol the child,

they usually introduce
the parents to the teacher.

And it was quite funny
to me that when she enrolled,

I never met the parents.

(dramatic music)

(Derrik) So in September of 1995,

Stewart Wilken visits the house
of Lynn and Michael Loots,

his ex-wife, with the explicit
purpose of investigating rumours

that his young daughter, Wuané,
had been molested by Michael Loots.

(sinister music)

(Gérard) At that point in time,
Stewart is staying in Happy Valley,

which is a sort of a child-friendly
park in the Humewood area

of Port Elizabeth.

His ex-wife, Lynn,
is staying with her husband,

and of course, Stewart's children,

in a boarding house in
Coventry Street in Sydenham.

He confronts Lynn,
she raises issues about school fees

that need to be paid, etc.

And he also confronts her about
the accusations regarding Michael.

(Derrik) This is Coventry Street,

Sydenham, Port Elizabeth,
low income area.

This is the place where Wuané Wilken,
Stewart's daughter

lived with her mom Lynn,
and her stepfather, Michael,

and her sister.

Once or twice,
he said there were problems,

Lynn would give him issues
if he came here.

So, if he wasn't paying the
maintenance, or helping support Wuané

but this specific day, he would
come here, meet with the family,

speak to Wuané, set up a meeting
on this very street.

(sombre music)

(Derrik) So, a trusting young girl
with her father.

By all means and by all information,

well the relationship
between the two was good.

Stewart loved her dearly,

and that's what makes it
even more sick and more confusing,

that he thought, or he believed,
that removing her off Earth

would make her life better.

He tells Wuané to get dressed,

put on her clothes and meet
him down the road at the corner.

From all evidence, Wuané puts
on her favourite Mickey Mouse shorts

and a blue and white top,

and leaves the house
to meet up with her dad

on the corner of Coventry Street.

During this time period,
she passes her stepsister,

and it's the last time anyone
in the family sees Wuané alive.

(dramatic music)

(sinister music)

(Derrik) Yeah, so this is the start
of the demise of Wuané Wilken.

From this house, the journey begins
with Dad taking her here.

And uh...

Basically, he's moving her to a taxi.

And shipping her off to Happy Valley.

He's driving in the taxi, but
in the back of his mind, he knows.

She's gonna--
she gonna lose her life.

(dramatic music)

(Gérard) He then takes Wuané
to the back of Happy Valley

where he'd been staying
in the bushes.

He then has a conversation
with her about the allegations

that Michael Loots
had actually molested her.

Initially, she denies,
he continues to push the issue,

telling her that it's safe,
it's okay for her to tell

whatever happened to him.

And eventually she
breaks down and starts crying.

He then asks her to get undressed so
that he can do an inspection himself.

(tense music)

(screaming)

(Gérard) So as Wilken realises
what's happened to his daughter,

he has certain things
going through his mind,

and he actually says in
his own words,

"She told me she
couldn't take this anymore.

And I thought to myself,
why must my child go through

what I had to go through?
I couldn't take it anymore.

I felt sore on the inside,
that psychological pain.

I closed my eyes and I said to God,

"Today,
You are gonna have to forgive me,

but I'm sending my
daughter's soul to you."

(Giada) So, in some ways,
him murdering her

is his rationalisation of
trying to save her from further harm,

of protecting her in some ways.

But on another level, he might have
felt quite angry towards her

for becoming almost a
sexualised person in his mind.

And in killing her off, it might also
be killing off the part of him

that was-- You know, he kind of
projected that part of him

that was a victim,
and killing that off.

(sombre music)

He would also claim to
go back to the body

and lay with her at night.

After the body was
recovered by police in May '96,

he would then still return to the
scene, uncover the clothing,

lay them out in the form of her body

where he would lay down with her,
and have conversations with her,

and in that way keep her
memory alive and close to him.

(dramatic music)

(Michael) I heard a (stammering)
rumour.

Me and Lynn were arguing one day.

And so she said I molested Wuané.

And she didn't done it!

(Salomon) If I recall, she was
here about four months, around about,

and then the last
address that they gave up

was the house in
Ralton Street, in Sidwell.

The first time I met Wuané's mother

was after she disappeared when
I went to search for her at home.

(Salomon) It was quite funny that
she immediately told me

that Wuané is not with her.

And that she wasn't aware
that she's not at school.

So then we went to the police station

and we made a case there that
her child has been lost, you know.

But it was long after that...

that I heard the story that
they got the bones

and that's how the story came to me.

(Derrik) So this homeless guy
is living in the bush.

He's walking around and he comes
across this tarpaulin

and he finds this body,

and he thinks initially
it's an animal that's died.

That's the level of decomposition.

(Derrik) And then when Boitjie
goes and looks,

he's like, "This ain't an animal,
this is a person."

(radio station jingle)

This is the News at Five
with Veronica Fourie.

A chilling discovery
today as the bones of a child

have been discovered
behind the old Port Elizabeth Hotel.

The bones were hidden under a tarp
and discovered by a homeless man

who brought it to the attention
of someone at the hotel.

The police on the scene believe
the bones belonged to a child

no older than 10 or 11 years,
and was likely a girl.

-(Salomon singing in Afrikaans)
-♪ Title: Loof Hom met die tromme ♪

(Salomon) We always had
a song or two to sing.

Then we used to have a nice message,
read a little Bible,

and then pray and then
carry on with our day.

Yes, it brings a lot of memories. Hm.

Good memories as well as bad ones,
hey.

That was her desk where
she was sitting.

(melancholy music)

When...

I heard that Wuané was killed,

it was-- it was tough.

It was tough on me. It was also
tough on Mr Nell, the headmaster.

And I can recall that
we were actually thinking,

"How could we have done it better
so that that couldn't happen

to a beautiful little girl
like Wuané was?"

But we were crying together.

Mr Nell and I...

we cried because of Wuané.
It was not good news.

(melancholy music)

(Gérard) So,
if we look at this particular murder

compared to the other ones, what
makes this different is firstly,

it was, of course,
a family member, his own daughter.

You can't get closer
than your child you helped create.

It was close by to
where he was staying,

so he could revisit
the body fairly regularly.

And also where it seems like all
the other murders, in his own words,

were motivated by hatred and anger,
revenge against God,

anger towards sex workers,
"whores", as he referred to it.

This one wasn't
motivated about anger.

In his own version of events, it
was motivated by a sense of altruism.

It was doing something
for a greater good.

It's almost motivated by factors that
are not selfish and coming from you.

It's for someone else.
It's to help that person,

as opposed to the anger
and rage that he experienced,

which motivated the other people that
he had murdered up until that point.

(Salomon) It just shows me how
twisted his brain was, you know.

To murder her, to save her.

How can you think you
can save her by murdering her?

It's just not...
it's just not normal, you know.

Being a father myself of three kids,

there's nothing in life
more pleasing to myself

to give my children
the love I've got.

And it was in teaching the same,

to give children love that I can see
did not receive love at home,

was the most pleasing

that I ever can-- can give a child.

(Gérard) I don't think
it's totally impossible

that in his own mind
this was a mercy killing.

The child had no way out
of this in the same way,

I suppose you could argue that he
felt he had no way out of this

as a child himself. Ending suffering.

Ending what is a predicted life
of suffering for this child.

(Derrik) The initial investigation
in '96,

was looking at
the body of a young girl

found, you know,
buried under this tarpaulin.

All we basically got left that we
could use for ID's was the skull.

But as it turns out, after we had
the skull and his confession,

dental records prove without any
doubt that this is Wuané Wilken.

An 11 year old girl,
Stewart's own daughter.

Not even his own kid
is safe from him.

That's what you're dealing with
when you talk about Boetie Boer.

(Gérard) Now, what's interesting of
the murder of Wuané,

it's against someone
who he knows very personally.

All the other victims,
except Henry and Wuané,

were complete strangers to him.

People that he could
very easily dehumanize, brutalize,

call them whores,
et cetera, et cetera.

But now with his own child, it's a
bit difficult to dehumanize them.

So with Wuané, we see him saying
he wanted to prevent her suffering.

But he also says that
to some degree with Henry,

where he actually says
in a statement,

"Afterwards I thought,
now your soul is gonna go to God."

(Derrik) So, another interesting fact
in this case was that Ellen Baker,

the mother of Henry,

she was the domestic
worker in the Wilken house.

She's told,
"This guy's not a good guy.

He's made a young woman pregnant."
Which would be a reference to Lynn.

And yeah, he's also not there all the
time. So way back as the early '80s,

he's identified as not
being the most savoury character.

And she describes fearing him,
having this intense fear of the guy.

Besides all of that,
as good people are,

she encourages him and supports him
when he's out and about,

and he's got nowhere to go,
and he comes and stays with her mom,

or in their house in Missionvale.

And she's supportive and kind
to the end,

which her kindness is repaid
with this,

disgusting,
heinous crime of killing her son.

It is what it is,
when it's with Stewart.

You show him kindness.
He kills your boy.