October 2021 rbbm.
By Genevieve Serra
Spotlight on the cold case of two sisters, one murdered and the other missing
Edna Piercey is still missing after 20 years. SUPPLIED
''Cape Town - Two sisters, one murdered and another missing for 20 years, is a cold case private investigator Leon Rossouw, of Consulting Detectives, won’t let go of until he unearths the truth.
A month ago, Rossouw took to social media in the hopes that modern technology could spread his investigation nationally, even to the Western Cape, and shed some light on what happened between October 14, 2001 to 2002, in Rustenburg.
Rossouw, through his company’s Facebook page, launched a social media investigation, while carrying out his normal routine as a private eye for more than four decades, studying human behaviour and patterns.''
''Edna was just 16 when she disappeared on a Sunday, in October 2001.
She had returned from a school camping trip on Sunday afternoon and had left her school bag with her friend, who lived two streets away from their home.
She had told her stepfather Johnny Lottering that she needed to collect her school bag from her friend in Oos-Einde, which was just a few blocks away, but she never returned home.
“That Monday, after her disappearance, the school bag was returned to Edna’s mother, which means she never made it to her friend’s home,” said Rossouw.
Rossouw believes the critical clues lie in the close relationship with her sister Blanche and friends, and the distance she had walked in a bid to get her school bag.
What had happened on that day? who did Edna meet along the way? These are questions Rossouw has asked himself during his widespread investigation.
Rossouw is now busy piecing together vital information that he hopes will unlock the truth.
He believes the two cases are connected.
“The two sisters have the same perpetrator, the person who killed Blanche is behind Edna’s disappearance,” he said.
Then, eight months later, tragedy struck the family yet again.
Blanche, 15, had been babysitting a family friend’s children, and disappeared shortly after leaving the house.
Five weeks later, her body was discovered, just 3km from her house, and she had been strangled to death and was basically naked.
He told Weekend Argus DNA had twice ruled out the stepfather as a suspect and he was sure the evidence was correct.''
Leon Rossouw of Consulting Detectives. Picture: Supplied
But why did Rossouw use social media and Facebook?
“There are 2.4 billion active Facebook users every month, and so there are many missing persons and unsolved cases that could be solved with all these users on social media! To the living we owe respect, but to the missing we owe the truth''
“I don't let the people I'm interviewing know that I consider them suspects. I treat them like they were friends or witnesses, and I tell them I'm just gathering information. But I watch them, I observe them keenly. I don't make any conclusions from my observations but I do note them.
“Some people are nervous when you knock on their doors whether they have something to hide or not.
“Some people will fidget with their hair or tap their foot because it is what they do, not because they are hiding information on a 20-year-old cold case,” he added.
If you have any information about the case, please contact or WhatsApp 063 682 5758, or send an email to
vermis@consultingdetectives.co.za''
