True Crime with Kimbyr - The Stella High School Tragedy: Opposites Attract and a Killer Strikes Part 2

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

In Part 2 of this series on True Crime with Kimbyr, we continue the story of Marna and Sharnelle. We explore the events leading up to the crime that shocked their community, delving into their lives, friendships, and dreams. We also investigate the killer’s motives and actions. How did this tragedy happen to these young women in the peaceful town of Stella? Join us as we piece together the puzzle in this emotional continuation of their story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sergeant Human called in the forensic investigators, and at this point, paramedics had arrived. They checked Marna's pulse, but she did not have one. It was much harder for them to reach Charnell. And since this was a potential crime scene, they didn't want to touch anything because they didn't want to contaminate the DNA if it was left behind.

But though unlikely, they had to make sure that Charnell wasn't still breathing. The paramedics went halfway up the flight of stairs and wore gloves to touch the rope and move her closer. Sadly, Charnell had also passed away. Sergeant Human had a horrible job of calling Charnell and Marna's families. They were half asleep eating breakfast when Stephanus heard the phone ring. He answered it, and the look on his face was like he just saw a ghost.

His wife knew right away that something was wrong. When Marna's mom were on its phone rang, she couldn't even find it. She was frantically looking for it. And when she finally picked it up, there was an officer on the other end telling her that her beloved daughter and her best friend had taken their lives. All three of them jumped in the car. Rihanna prayed to God for strength. She had now lost two daughters.

And it was self-inflicted. That didn't make sense. Both girls were happy. They had their entire lives ahead of them. Why would they choose this? That was the question. When Marna's parents showed up, they rushed to find her. Her sister was there with her mom and dad.

They were led to the bathroom. And when her mom took one look at Marna, she said, no. This is Marna. murder. They say a mother always knows. By the way that Marna's body was hunched over, placed with her head on the floor, it didn't look like she had fallen forward. It looked like someone had put her there and Marna's mother was convinced of it. At the same time, Ronnie was making phone calls. He found out about the death, remember, from the head of the school. First, Ronnie called his brother Louis, the dad of Charnel's cousin Lim Marie. Ronnie lived 45

minutes away from Stella and Louis lived much closer. So he asked his brother to please drive over to the high school and be there while paramedics and police arrived. So Louis agreed and called Lamari to tell her the news. Then Ronnie called Sonia. Sonia had been worried sick for 45 minutes and she immediately picked up when Ronnie revealed that their daughter was dead. I can't even imagine the wall of grief that hit her, knowing she would never hear Charlenele's voice on Sunday afternoons ever again. Sonia and Ronnie hopped in their cars and they drove to the scene. Those Sonia had a much longer drive ahead of her, that two hours from Custer. Louis got there in 20 minutes before anyone was there and he went inside to see Charnell. Two more police officers had arrived,

and they were calling this an unnatural death investigation. When Louis saw his niece was still hanging by a rope, he asked the officers to please cut her down. It was a whole horrific way to see her completely powerless. But the police actually refused. They said they had to wait until the forensic investigator showed up so they could rule out a potential homicide. Louis was so upset, but decided to wait for his brother to get there and make a decision.

When Ronnie showed up and Charnell was still dangling in the air, can you even imagine he was outraged? He demanded that the police take her down. And when they wouldn't, he asked Louis to help him because he was going to take matters into his own hands, and I don't blame him. I could not bear to see someone like that, anyone like that, but let alone my child, they moved the bikes out of the way and moved the wall cushions underneath the stairs. Louis went up the stairs and cut the rope, and Charanelle was lowered into Ronnie's arms.

Just picturing that makes me so sad. Ronnie sank to the ground, running his hands through his daughter's hair as the police looked on. They didn't want to interfere with this grief, even though there was a good chance. that Ronnie's DNA would be all over the scene. It makes me sad that anyone has to worry about fingerprints and DNA when their daughter has just died. It adds insult to injury, but at the same time, I can respect and understand

how important it is for the scene not to be contaminated. Ronnie accepted that the police had to continue their investigation, and he sat Charnell down on the cushions, and he went to see Marna's body and to stand with Marna's mom and dad and sister. He noticed that Charnell, when he brought her down was significantly warmer than Marna. Ronnie told the police this and they took note of this observation.

As the family stood outside the girls' hostile waiting for answers, Brandon was on that bus riding to Koster. He texted and called Charnell over and over, and she never picked up. When they arrived at the rugby field, the coach lined up all the players. Brandon sat horrified as his coach told them that Marna and Charnell had died of what they were saying were unnatural causes. Brandon just felt not only sick to his stomach, but heartbroken. Tonight was the night that he was going to ask Charnell to be his girlfriend.

He'd been waiting over a year for that moment, and now it was ripped away from him. It seemed unreal. Brandon didn't know the allegations that the girls had taken their own lives. He thought it was just unnatural causes, like something happened to them. If he did hear it was self-inflicted, he didn't believe it for a moment. He had been hanging out with the girls six hours before this. Unnatural to him meant it was a murder. Brandon called Ronnie and told him that he suspected Xander right away.

At 11.30 the night before, he had gone to Sharnel and Marna's bedroom. He told her dad they held hands, they danced to music, and Sharnel even, I know this sounds gross, was helping him get rid of some acne on his back. Brandon was having a great time, but Sharnel's phone kept ringing and getting text alerts. it was just blowing up nonstop. So we asked her who was messaging. And Charnel said, it was Xander. And they tried their best to ignore it. But the phone calls were distracting.

And at midnight, Sharnel finally answered, putting the phone on speaker. Marna and Brandon went completely silent, just listening. And Zander's first words are, Are you alone in Afrikaans? Chanel said yes.

Sanders said he didn't believe her and asked her to walk into a different room. So Sharnel walked out of the bedroom, and right back in, but making sure her footsteps were as loud as possible. So Zander thought she was by herself. Then Zander asked if she wanted to go out for a late-night meal, and Sharnel said no. Zander asked if he could return some of her clothes. And again, Sharnel's like, no.

She would just send Ronnie to go pick up her clothes from Monty's farm. But Zander said he was going to be busy for the rest of the week, and he wasn't sure when he was going to see Sharnel again. So he invited himself over to the hostel asking if the gate was open. Brandon described the scared look on Charnell's face when she realized the gate was open. She said the gate was locked and don't come over.

But Zander would not take no for an answer. He said he would break open the gate if he had to. She told Zander, if he was so insistent on bringing the clothes, that Marna could actually go meet him downstairs at the window. Then Zander called her a B word. And right before he hung up, he said, you're going to be sorry when you see what I do tonight. Those words scared Charnell.

She actually started to cry. Brandon knew that when Zander had been in a relationship with Charnell, he had threatened to take his own life if she ever left him. He'd do this to manipulate her into staying with him, and now they figured he was threatening to hurt himself again. So Brandon offered to stay over in Charnell's room and take the backlash or the punishment from the hostile mom. He also suggested they wake up the house mom and lock the front gate.

But Charnell told him not to worry. if Zander showed up, she would just stay in her room and ignore him. At that point, Marna, Brandon, and Charnel were all scared, but they were tired. They had to get up in just a few hours. So Brandon reluctantly left, but Charnel insisted, everything was going to be okay. She told him everything would be fine. Brandon told all of this to Charnel's dad, Ronnie, over the phone. And Ronnie was overwhelmed with emotion, and he thanked Brandon for reaching out.

Ronnie knew Charnel liked Brandon. And he also knew that Charnell had been in a toxic relationship with Xander. But Brandon had been the last person to see both Marna and Charnell alive. So was he lying about Zander's phone call to maybe remove a target from his back? And was Zander really capable of murder? Ronnie wasn't sure what to believe. And meanwhile, the forensic investigators showed up at the scene and began gathering evidence. They collected the clump of dark hair that was laying on the ground,

as well as Charnell and Marna's phones. They swabbed the staircase rails, the bathroom sinks, sinks, the front door to the hostel, the girls' phones, and surfaces throughout their bedroom. They analyzed the rope and the handbag strap. It was anyone's guess as to what happened here. Had Charnell and Marna led someone in and that person end up harming them, or did they have a pact to end their own lives? Captain Marcus Ferreira was assigned to the case, representing the South African police. He learned from talking to Christel that the gates to the boys and the girls' hostels were both left open overnight.

Stella High School knew that the gates had been opened, which could mean they could be sued by Marna and Charnell's families for negligence. So the headmaster hops and panicked. So he decided to call a private investigation firm in Hartswater and PI Christopher Saunders was assigned to the case. He was hired to find out what happened

and to serve justice. But at the end of the day, he was working for the headmaster and he was going to do everything possible to prove Stella was not responsible for these deaths. The families were still outside the hostel speculating about what had happened. All of them thought this was murder. When Ronnie got the phone call from Brandon,

he repeated Brandon's story to the group. He told them what Xander said, that they're going to be sorry when they see what he does that night. Stephanas heard this and recalled a conversation that he had with Marna in March of that year. Marna had told him that Zander was stalking Charnel. Even though they had broken up and he no longer went to Stella,

he would show up there. And Marna always came to Charnel's defense. She even texted Zander that if he didn't, didn't leave her best friend alone, she would tell her parents about Zander's behavior, and all this information would be taken to the Freiburg Police. That's when Zander went off on Marna. He texted her, insulting her, leaving her vulgar comments, even referencing her genitals, which was inappropriate. He said Marna had too much control over Sharnel's light and that she was the one who convinced Sharnel to break up with him. He told Marna to stop messing with his relationship with Sharnel or else.

Marna showed Stephanus the text message chain, and Saffanus didn't like that Zander was threatening his daughter and calling her names. So at this time, he considered this just teenage drama. But Marna said she was scared. So Staphanes decided to fix it himself. He called Zander and politely told him not to call his daughter names. Saffanus had met Zander several times, and the teen was always respectful, but this time, Zander got angry with him.

And he cursed at him, and he yelled, and he's like, you can't tell me what's. to do, and Zander even told him if they didn't leave him alone, he would resolve this issue with his gun. And Stefana's couldn't take him seriously. He was starting to use a gun over a breakup. When the call ended, he recommended three things, that Marna blocks Sander, that Chanel should keep telling him no until he got the message and left her alone. And third, he said, let sleeping dogs lie. I think most of us know what he's saying is just try to ignore him and don't fuel his fire. And I don't like to judge people's advice to their children. After all, I don't think Stefanus thought that this would truly escalate. Hindsight is always 2020. And I'm guessing he

hadn't been in the situation before. But now standing outside the hostel, all Stephanus could think about was this conversation. Maybe Xander had followed through with his threat. Stefanus took the family car and headed in the direction of Xander's father's farm with the full intent to confront and even shoot Zander if he had to. Since Sander had graduated, he'd been living and working for his dad. So he knew where to find him. And 10 minutes after Stefanas left, private investigator Chris Saunders arrived. He was given a full tour of the crime scene. Marna and Charnell had been taken to the hospital by now, but he was given a rundown on how they had been found. Then he interviewed Ronnie, Sonia, Rianette, and Rihanna. Detective Sonder learned about the strange

text messages that Ronnie and Sonia had received earlier that morning, one of them mentioning Brandon by name. He also learned that nobody thought this was self-harm. Everyone thought the perpetrator was Xander. But everyone confirmed that Brandon had been the last person to see Marna and Charnell, which made him a person of interest. The only person missing was Stephanus, and all of them said he was going after Xander, and he brought a gun. Rihanna was convinced that he was going to do something he regretted. So time was of the essence. Sonderance Sondertz actually took off for that farm. And when he got there, he turned on a voice recorder, because as a private investigator, Saunders always did his best to collect as much evidence as possible.

He wanted to document the day to remember his suspects and their alibis, but he never used these recordings as evidence in court. When Saunders pulled up outside the farmhouse, Stephanas and Monty were 30 minutes into a screaming match, and Zander was in a slumped position near the wall. Saffanus was brandishing his gun at both of the men, accusing Zander of murdering his daughter and her best friend. Now, Saunders had to do his best to de-escalate the situation.

He said he was law enforcement and not there to accuse Zander of murder. Instead, he wanted to make sure that Zander was safe. If the town of Stella thought Zander was responsible, he would be in danger. The police wanted to keep him safe and they wanted Zander's statement. Stefan has calmed down. He agreed that having Zander under supervision of the law enforcement was the right move. So he left. And Zander agreed to go with Saunders into the police car,

but he was walking slowly, kind of acting like he was under the influence of something. Saunders asked Zander's dad, Monty, if it was normal for his son to be sleepy and slurring his words. And Monty said Zander was in shock. He asked him if he could drive Zander the station himself, but Saunders insisted that he drove him. And Monty understood that he was only doing his job. Saunders promised to keep Zander safe. Then Monty said something concerning. He said he didn't have an alibi for Zander.

He'd seen his son leave at 6.30 p.m. on Friday night and came back to his farm, at 6 o'clock Saturday morning, though he might have been in his mom's the whole night. So considering he didn't think he had an alibi, Monty asked if he should hire a lawyer, and Saunders said yes, and I've said this many times, but it's always smart to hire a lawyer even if you're innocent. Zander sat in the back seat,

and Detective Saunders began a long drive back to Stella while Monty followed behind in his car. Saunders asked Sander why he seemed intoxicated, and Zander just responded that he was stressed. He said Charnell's cousin Lamari called him at 7 o'clock in the morning and told him that Sharnel and Marna had taken their own lives. Charnel had been the love of Sanders' life. And Marna was his second cousin.

He said he was just grieving. Saunders began using the reed technique of interrogation. That's a three-step process where the officer presents all the facts of the case, gives a psychological theory on why a perpetrator might have done this, and then the person being interviewed starts to open up and share. They present alternative questions. For example, the officer could ask, did you plan to kill the person,

or did it just happen in the heat of the moment? I'm sure all of you have heard either a show or a real interview like this. But these kind of questions imply guilt. In either way, the answer will produce a confession. The read method when used on younger people, though, can result in false confession. And I want you to keep that in mind

as I relay this conversation. If you watch a couple of my previous videos, We've covered false confessions so you should know or have some knowledge that they do occur. But this message can also elicit a real confession, which is why it's used. So Detective Saunders asked Zander to provide his alibi, and Zander said on Friday night, he was bored. His closest friend worked abroad in the U.S., so Zander was feeling isolated, and he visited another friend of his and named Petey. They drank together with some of Petit Stella friends until about 10, 15 that night. After Zander left Pedy, he went to the convenience store known as a garage in South Africa to get some more beer.

Zander's current unusual night routine was to go out to the remote fields where they were holding the B.S. Fias F the county fair and hang out alone, drinking and smoking. Zander said he stayed there until 3 o'clock in the morning. Then he drove to his mom's farm. His mom, Mershia, was an administrative assistant for Camille Fontaine Farm in Freiburg. She coordinated a transportation business where trucks would come in and get. go out with animal feed. Zander drove to that gate, but it was locked. Zander said he knew that trucks came and went regularly, so we just waited a few hours, smoked outside the gate until it opened at 4 o'clock in the morning. He said he saw a Volvo truck come through the gate,

and Zander took that opportunity to drive inside. He denied being anywhere near Stella High School that night and said the Volvo was his alibi. Zander was silent. And then he told Saunders that when Stephanas chewed him out, DeFontas mentioned a video of the This is actually standard policy for investigators to take a video documenting everything at the scene the way they found it. He said by bringing up this video, Stephanus was implying that the girls did not die by self-inflicted wounds and that Zander was a murderer. And Saunders agreed there was a video and that's when Zander said, can I see it? But Saunders let him know it was illegal for him to show Zander that video. But why would Zander want to see a crime scene where his ex-girlfriend and his second cousin had died?

Kind of morbid, but maybe he thought he could offer an opinion since the investigator was asking him what he thought. Like if a killer had done this, why do you think they would do it or how do you think this occurred? That's part of the read technique. Saunders told Xander, to be honest with him, did he really not go to the hostel that night? Now Zander said he didn't know. He says he wasn't sure what happened because there had been a few hours between drinking in the empty field and go into his mom that were unaccounted for. So Saunders asked him, Do you not remember or do you not want to remember?

And at this point, Zander started to fall asleep. Sondor told them to stay awake. This is important. And that's when Zander switched his story. Now we said he had gone to Stella high school that night. He went to the girls' hostel to fix things with Charnell. He wasn't sure what time since he'd been drinking and didn't look. But we know that Brandon left in the early morning hours around 1 a.m.

So that meant it had to have been probably sometime afterward, maybe around 1.30 or two. Zander said that Sharnel came out of her room to meet with him and smoke, and they sat on the staircase. They started talking, and that's when Sharnel confessed to him that she was dating Brandon. But she said she was still in love with Sander. Zander told Saunders that he asked her why she couldn't just be with him,

and Sharnel said that everyone her life thought he was toxic and that the relationship wasn't good, and she couldn't convince her friends or her family that they should be together. Zander said that he was, of course, upset. He thought that Marna and Charnell's parents were standing in the way of their love. It was like Romeo and Juliet, and he trailed off. And Saunders explained to him exactly how the girls had died. He said that Charnell was hanged with a green nylon rope

and that Marna had the strap of a handbag around her neck. And Saunders asked, did you hang Charnell? And Zander said no. He asked, did you strangle Marna in the bathroom? And Zander again said no. He claimed to have left as soon as Charnell told him that she was dating Brandon. But now we get to the accusatory interview tactics. Saunders told Zander he would need a good lawyer.

He told Zander to tell the truth. Zander asked in Afrikaones, what would I need to say in order to get shot? And what I think he meant by this is, what do I have to say in order to be guilty so I could get this over with and they would just take care of me? Saunders said, even if Zander confessed, he wouldn't be shot. He'd be safe. But Xander actually asked to be shot. Remember, he was grieving.

He had just lost someone that he was obsessed with. But was this more of him knowing more than he was letting on? Zander changed his story again. He said, between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., he was intoxicated and everything felt like a dream. He said he had a conversation with Charnell on the hostel stairs, and that during that conversation, she got cold. So she went to get long pants from her bedroom.

That's when Marna walked to the bathroom. Zander then admitted he was mad at Marna. He felt like she was the one who was standing between him and Charnell and convincing Charnell to date Brandon and not him. He said he noticed a handbag in the alcove, he grabbed it, and he followed Marna into the girl's bathroom. He said he saw Marna washing her hands in the sink. And that's when Zander admitted he punched her and grabbed her hair.

Then he wrapped one of the handles of the bag around her throat, and he took her life. Then he attached a strap to the sink to make it look like Marna had done this to herself. Wow. There's a lot of things he said in there that he wouldn't have known if he wasn't there. The hair being pulled. Remember there was a clump of hair on the ground. The way that she was found. Nobody told him that. Then he said he met Charnell on the stairs and at that point she thought

Marna was still in the bathroom. Zander said they again talked about Brandon. But Charnell refused to get back together. with Xander. So that's when he punched Charnell in the chest and he knocked the wind out of her. And then he strangled her by wrapping his arm around her neck. When she was unconscious, he tied a rope around her neck, dragged her to the railing, and with the rope, he lowered her over the banister until she was hanging with her feet above the bikes. That is just disgusting. And Xander said brutally, quote, and then I hanged her. Just like that. It was unbelievable. Zander went on to explain that Charnell wanted this. What? Well, that's what he said. He said that she told him that she'd

accidentally sent her daddy text that was intended to go to Brandon. And it was a photo of her just wearing a bra. Zander told Charnell, that's why she shouldn't take pictures like that. It was shameful. And Zander told Saunders that Charnel was embarrassed and ashamed. And now that she couldn't be with Xander, he said that she was too upset to stay on this earth. Saunders asked, did Sharnel want to die? And Zanders said, yeah, she wanted him to kill her. So Saunders asked if that's why Sharnel didn't scream to alert the house mom. And Zonders said yes.

But remember, this is a theory. This is a technique where he's kind of eliciting this confession, right? He's asking these leading questions, and Zander just gets to say yes or no. So he's just following a line of reasoning. right here. So Saunders then asked if Zander had gone through Charnell's phone that night and sent any messages. And Zander said, no. And that's what I was originally thinking. Or that maybe she accidentally sent it and he saw it, but it seemed more likely that this was sent by the perpetrator because it seems so odd. But okay, there's a lot of inconsistencies in this story. First of all,

Zander implies that Sharnel didn't scream because she wanted to die. Not because he just punched her and knocked the wind out of her. Also, why was Marnas clump of hair outside the bathroom? and not in the bathroom? Did Zander confront her outside and then bring her inside? How fast could he have done that for Sharnal not to notice? Was Zander lying when he said he hadn't gone through her messages? After all, he had demanded her phone in the past multiple times while they were dating.

And if Zander really wanted to be shot for his actions, why didn't he just let Stephanus take care of it? South Africa doesn't have the death penalty. So there was no way for Zander to end his life. And Zander sounded like he knew everything about the crime. But Saunders had just told him everything as well, because he was asking him questions and all he had to do was say us. Zander had also received a phone call from Lamari at 7 a.m. explaining how the girls had been found,

and Stephanus had revealed a bunch of information when he was threatening him. Was Zander just making this up? And why would he do that if it wasn't him who killed him? Detective Saunders pulled into the Stella police station, glad that he'd recorded every minute of this conversation without Zander knowing. It wasn't an official interview. but it was a good starting point for the investigation for sure. So at this point, Sonder dropped Zander off with other officers who brought him in for an official confession. His dad, Monty, and his mom, Marcia, waited at the police station.

Police asked Sander if he wanted to speak to a lawyer, and he said, no. He was happy to just do the confession. So now on Saturday, May 26, Zander confessed. He said, quote, Sharnel told me that she no longer wanted to be on earth and that she did not want to hurt other people. I then realized that she did not want to hurt other people.

I then realized that she was asking me to help her take her life. We made an agreement that I had to find a way so that she didn't have to feel the pain. I put my arm around her throat to make her pass out. With the rope already around her neck, I just want to state that I tied the rope to the stairs when she was still alive and she was aware of it. Then Marna came up the stairs to go to the bathroom. I don't remember if I talked to her. I saw a handbag underneath the stairs, I picked it up, and I ran after Marna.

And while she was washing her hands, what I can remember is that I suffocated. end quote. That was his statement. So we changed a story again because in this story, Marna walked up right past her friend, didn't notice that she was hanging by the banister. He's got to be lying, but it didn't matter. He was arrested on two charges of first-degree murder and taken to the Roycrum prison in Mafie Kong. The investigation was far from over. Detective Saunders started interviewing people close to Xander, including PD, and PD was no angel. He'd been present during a domestic fight between his parents in which his mother had actually died. And ever since, PD was known for his aggression.

Saunders was concerned because if this was the kind of person that Zander was hanging out with, maybe PD assisted Zander in the crime. But PD said that Zander dropped him off at 10.15 and he'd been home the whole night. His cell phone records would prove it. Detective Saunders also interviewed Brandon. He was still a person of interest because he had been the last person to see Sharnel and Marna alive. Saunders asked Brandon for his phone. He cooperated.

They went through all of his text messages with Charnell and nothing was out of the ordinary. He was an understanding guy. He respected her boundaries. And he even offered to be there for her. On the morning of May 26th at one o'clock in the morning, Brandon and Charnell sent their last messages to one another. Brandon asked if Charnell was okay.

He offered to come back over to the girl's hostel. He could be her personal bodyguard against Sander. Or, Sharnel could come over to the ball, boys dorm. Charnell said it was a bad idea. They could get in trouble. She insisted she was okay. And according to his phone records, Brandon's phone never left the boys hostel until 6.30 in the morning because he was probably asleep after that because he had a big game the next day. Saunders heard Brandon's alibi once more, as well as the story he told Ronnie about Zander and Charnell's terrifying late-night phone call she was getting. Investigators fact-checked this

with Charnell's phone. On Friday night, Charnell texted Brandon to stop by the girl's hospital, the girls' hostile and have coffee with them. She had about a dozen missed calls from Zander over the course of the night. She picked up one call after midnight, and this matched up with Brandon's story. Brandon also told police that in the months leading up to the crime, Zander would show up at Stella High School randomly. Charnell told Brandon that she didn't want to meet up with Xander. She was tired of saying no and him not taking no for an answer. And recently, she told Zander that she was seeing Brandon and that Zander had actually called

Brandon, so he kind of already knew this, and tried to manipulate him into breaking up with Charnell so that he could be with her and to stay away from her. Brandon could see right through Xander's BS. He had liked Charnell for so long, and Charnell liked him back. He wasn't going to let Zander again the way of a good thing. In the next few days, Charnell and Marna were given autopsies by forensic pathologist Dr. Trompel's. Marna had several injuries. Some of her hair was pulled out, which was already evident from the clump of the scene, that alone would suggest this was not self-inflicted. Her jaw was broken. Maybe she had even been punched in the face. As for a cause of death, it was ruled a homicide by strangulation. Marna had been throttled with the

strap of that bag. It was not consistent with the hanging, meaning Marna had been murdered, and the strap had been tied to the tap after she died. Dr. L. suggested that Marna was killed before Sharnel. The bathroom was close enough to the stairs that Marna would have seen Charnell on her way to the bathroom if Sharnel was already dead and hanging from the banister. It was clear that there was a scuffle outside of the bathroom, which is why officers found some of her hair there. Knowing Marna, she would have put up a fight which it appeared that she had. As for Sharnel, Dr. L. said she sustained blunt force trauma to her chest, that the attacker hit her and use this

opportunity to take advantage of her, to overpower her. Charnel had two strangulation wounds. The first was horizontal from something wider than a rope, about the size of a forearm. Listen to all this and compare it to what Xander said. The second was from the rope. And this part is graphic, but it's the truth. The rope marks bruised her neck in multiple places.

This meant that Charnel had been awake or woke up while she was hanging from this rope. Oh my gosh, that is so devastating and heartbreaking. She would have struggled at that point, and the other wounds show that she had tried to get herself down while the rope was cutting off her airway. For example, all of the fingernails on her right hand were broken and most of the fingernails on her left as well. This was from trying to pry the rope from her neck. She had scratched her neck until it bled. How horrifying. There was also an

injury to her nose and pressure to her head, which caused bleeding behind her eyes. I am horrified that this happened to her. Who knows how long she was hanging there, just scared. and alone in her last moments. This was also a murder, and both of their bodies were swabbed in order to find possible DNA from the perpetrator. When Detective Saunders heard the report, everything lined up.

Zander could not have known. Marna was punched in the face, and Charnell was punched in the chest, unless he was there. They had their killer behind bars. Now, they needed to collect enough evidence to prevent him from ever being released. Police canvassed a neighborhood and put out a call for tips.

A witness then came forward and claimed that they had seen Zander's car near their girls' hostel on Friday night. Police confirmed no other girls other than Marna and Charnell were present at the hostel. They had their killer behind bars. Now, they needed to collect enough evidence to prevent him from ever being released.

Police canvassed a neighborhood and put out a call for tips. A witness then came forward and claimed that they had seen Zander's car near their girls' hostel on Friday night. Police confirmed no other girls other than Marna and Charnell were present at the hostel. At that point, the school girls were given the opportunity to speak with counselors.

but that didn't help the fact that their friends were gone. And can you imagine walking up and down those stairs and using that bathroom knowing what happened there? I can't even imagine it makes me sick to my stomach. They did put on a memorial at the school. I do have some photos of posters they put up, photos of both of the girls, and they were there to honor their memories.

Meanwhile, analysts looked at the texts from Charnell's phone from her parents. They knew that Charnell and Marna had been killed between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and these text messages were sent at 4.17, and they were from the perpetrator. So the police department looked into Xander's Volvo haliby. If Zander was home at 4 a.m. like he said, then they arrested the wrong guy. So they went to Mercia's farm, and they located the exact Volvo truck that Zander was talking about. It was a truck company policy to install tracking devices inside all their vehicles to record the mileage and to assess business

costs. So Officer Ferreira found out that the Volvo was turned on at 4.02 a.m. by a driver. He was on his way to Freiburg by 4.30. Marsh's farm was 40 minutes away from Stella. So if a fake text was sent at 417 by Xander, then he would have gotten back from the hostel at 5 a.m. If he was at Stella, how did he know the Volvo was leaving at 4? Did he pass it on the way to his moms? Or did he contact his mom and she created an alibi for him? Or maybe he was home the whole time. It seemed unlikely, but anything was possible. So police dug in to Xander's personal life.

Sander was born on May 13, 1999, to Mershya and Monty Belzma. In Hartswater, a part of the Northern Cape. Mercia spent years trying to have a child. She miscarried several times, and during Xander's pregnancy, she actually contracted German measles, also called Rubella. And I've talked about this before in my case about the Gallaudet murders, When a woman gets rebella, it often causes complications and can result in high-risk pregnancy, including a miscarriage and birth defects and stillbirths.

Doctors recommended that Marcia terminate this pregnancy, but this was her miracle baby. She couldn't give him up. And when Zander was born, he was small and sickly, but he ended up making a full recovery. Mirza thought that he was a gift from God, and she would do anything for him. And Zander was a mama's boy, and everyone knew it. When Zander's parents divorced, it was a very hard. for him to cope. He was a troublemaker. He acted out in school. So they took him to a mental health professional to talk about his feelings and Zander wouldn't talk. His behavioral issues got

worse with age. He bullied his classmates and he was suspended multiple times while at Stella for getting into fights, hiding alcohol, and even sneaking into the girls' hostel. He graduated a year late because of his suspension. Rumors swirled around Stella that Zander was bad news and his parents should have disciplined him better. I'm not sure that I'm not sure that you can blame Monty and Mercia, but you tell me, how do you feel about that?