Zaheera Boomgaard: The double murderer who claims to hear voices
Image: Zelda Venter
Double murderer Zaheera Boomgaard 'hears voices' in her head, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria was told shortly before a social worker was due to present her presentencing report regarding Boomgaard's personal circumstances to the court.
Boomgaard's lawyer mentioned to the court that his client said she heard voices, although it was not elaborated on exactly what the voices entailed. It was instead decided to send Boomgaard for evaluation to the Sterkfontein psychiatric hospital.
This will be her second stint under psychiatric evaluation as she, at the start of her trial, also claimed to hear voices. Psychiatrists, however, at the time found that she did not suffer from any mental illness.
Boomgaard is due to be sentenced at this stage for the deaths of two elderly people, both in their 70s. They are Jamnadas Harkant Nathvani, a British national whose body was badly burnt, as well as that of her friend, Lyntette Mustapha.
Both bodies were found near a road in Walkerville not far from each other and within a few months of each other. Indications are that both were killed elsewhere and that Boomgaard dumped them next to the road before setting them alight.
She was meanwhile acquitted of a third murder - that of John Naisby, who went missing in 2012 after visiting Boomgaard and was never seen again. His body was never recovered, and his family eventually had him declared to be presumably dead by a court. Boomgaard denied Naisby had ever visited her. She testified that he came from Cape Town on route later to Rustenburg. She briefly spoke to him once at the Walkerville Spar, she said, where she left him and never saw him again.
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Along with the two murders, Boomgaard was also convicted on a host of other crimes, including forging a will and 36 counts of theft regarding cash withdrawals from the account of one of her victims. It was established that she had used Nathvani's bank card after his death, while a forged will pertaining to Mustapha was found in her home. In terms of the will, she (Boomgaard) inherited everything.
Judge John Holland-Muter said while there is no direct evidence linking her to the two killings, the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming. These include the tracking of her vehicle placing it on the scene where the body of Mustapha was found, along with bloody towels. The fraudulent will of this deceased was also found in her house.
Several neighbours also testified that Nathvani was at her place on several occasions, something Boomgaard did not deny. She, however, claimed he left for Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal and she never saw him again. Bank statements also proved that she made purchases with his bank card after his death.
Imprints matching her car were also found near where the body of Mustapha was found, and blood stains on one of her shoes matched the blood of Mustapha. The blood found on her sneakers indicated that Mustapha was bleeding in her presence, the judge said.
Regarding her car's tyre imprints, the judge said the reasonable inference from this fact is that the deceased's body was dragged from the vehicle to where the body was left.
'The tyre imprints matching that of the accused's vehicle together with the dragging marks justify the inference that the body was taken from the vehicle and dumped next to the road. This is rather damning for the case of the accused,' Judge Holland-Muter earlier said.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
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