True Crime with Kimbyr - The Stella High School Tragedy: Opposites Attract and a Killer Strikes Part 3

Episode Date: July 31, 2024

In Part 3 of this series on True Crime with Kimbyr, we delve deeper into the chilling case of Xander and the brutal murders of Sharnelle and Marna. We uncover harrowing details of the crime, Xander's manipulative behavior, and the intense investigation that led to his eventual confession. Despite numerous twists, conflicting stories, and an inconclusive DNA report, justice prevails as Xander is convicted and sentenced to two life terms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm torn because we can't always control someone else's actions, and at this point, Zander was an adult. However, nature and nurture do play a part. As a 19-year-old, Zander was paid by local farmers to hunt and kill wild animals like jackals who killed their cattle. And Zander loved to hunt. He loved guns. This was small town northwest. It was the culture there. But he'd killed before.

Had you graduated to humans now? That was the question. Investigators talked to the families. Sharnel's parents, Ronnie and Anna, said they were concerned about Zander from the start. He seemed like a nice, quiet boy, but he had been suspended, and they heard he was quite the player. So they warned Sharnel not to date him, but Sharnel always gave people a chance. Stefana's told police that Marna had told him, Sharnel and Zander were in an abusive relationship, her words, and that Zander wouldn't let Sharnel post pictures on Instagram.

He thought that some of the things that she wore were too attractive. And he would even delete certain photos from her friends. He didn't even want her to wear makeup. She had to quit sports, and he tried to feed her sweets so that she would gain weight. Because in his mind, he thought it would make her less attractive. And if herself seemed decreased, then she would rely on him more and he'd have more power. And that's terrible. Things escalated. People at school saw Zander grab Sharnel's arm, push her, and even cause bruising. Charnell told Marna that Zander was aggressive and scary. She waited until the winter of 2018 to break up with him because she was waiting for Zander to graduate so that she didn't have to see him every day.

People close to Sharnel said that she didn't think Zander was capable of anything drastic like murder, but she knew he was capable of violence. And she didn't want him to have any more power over her life. Investigators waited for DNA results to come back. In June of 2018, a joint funeral service was held at a Dutch Reformed church in Freiburg. Hundreds of people showed up to celebrate Marna and Charnell's friendship and their memory. The girls were buried near each other, and blue, pink, and purple balloons were released into the sky. This tradition represents letting go of grief

and letting their souls ascend to the heavens and letting their spirits be free. Ronnie told reporters that Charnell was his sunbeam. She was his reason to live, and now that she was gone, his life had lost meaning. He hoped that he could meet her in heaven one day. He didn't want May 25th to be the last time he heard Charnell laugh. and I feel so bad for parents who lose their children.

At the funeral, the common theory that was swirling around was that Zander had snuck into the girls' room while they slept and knocked them both out before ending their lives. But the autopsy results said something different, but everyone hoped that the girls hadn't seen it coming. But if only they knew the truth. Lynn Mari said she thought it was murder from the beginning. She remembered Zander's obsession with Sharnel

and she thought Zander was the murderer. But why then would Limari call Zander at 7 o'clock that morning, the morning of her cousin's death? Was she accusing him or was she informing him? We'll never know what happened during that call. But we do know that the family thought Zander did it. But unbelievably, the general public did not. Remember, Detective Saunders had not released Sanders' original confession.

There was just the police statement, which provided only circumstantial evidence, but no concrete evidence. Nothing tied him to the crime scene. Then the DNA results came back, and they were inconclusive. And I swear, when they need the DNA results the most, I mean, they always do, but it's inconclusive. There's no other evidence tying him,

so they needed it so badly. Zander was not ruled out as a suspect, though. But he was also not incriminated. The crime scene was covered in DNA. There's so many people that go back and forth in a school. Several samples were found on the rope and the purse and the stairwell. and their bedroom.

Everything had been touched by girls who lived at that facility. There was so much evidence that it was impossible to isolate one DNA strand from the rest. They determined that the strap used to hurt Marna had not been touched by anyone in her family, and the rope used to hurt Charnell had been touched by paramedics and her uncle Louis, and Charnell's body had been touched by her dad, Ronnie. And as we know, this could have disturbed or covered some of the DNA evidence. Analysts also checked Chanel's fingernails and found her own DNA as well as DNA they assumed might have belonged to Brandon.

She had been touching Brandon's back earlier. If you'll recall, she was helping getting rid of some of his back knee. And it was highly unlikely that she scratched the person who killed her since she was taken by surprise. Xander's DNA was the only DNA that was tested against all of the crime scene swabs. Ronnie, Louie, and Brandon were all close enough to Sharnel to be of interest, but their DNA would have already been unseen. They didn't have a motive, so they were not suspects.

But now the investigators were back at square one and only relying on Zander's confession, which he had taken back. Zander had actually gotten a lawyer, Fierty Fahenherian, and he told Van Herian that he was not anywhere near Stella on Friday night or Saturday morning. However, he claimed he had been threatened by both Chris Saunders and Stephanus, and that they would kill his parents if he didn't confess to both murders. That was his argument. His lawyer asked why a witness had seen Zander's car near the hostel that night. And Zander again changed his story. Common theme here.

He said he had gone to visit Sharnel briefly, but hadn't even gotten out of his car. He was just dropping off some of her clothes. Zander promised they wouldn't find any of his fingerprints or DNA at the crime scene. So his lawyer gave Zander the benefit of the doubt. But what was unfortunate is that Zander kept telling different stories. He signed Zander up for a mental health assessment at this point. At Zander's next hearing with the Freiburg Magistrates Court,

he and his defense decided to plead not guilty to both murders, meaning he would have to be indicted and go to trial. Zander took back his original police confession for several reasons. First reason? When Lamari called Zander and said Charnell and Marna were dead, he took a handful of anti-anxiety medication, he didn't specify how many pills, but he did say about 10 times his normal dose.

Was he trying to cope with his grief? Was he anxious because he had murdered Charnel or because she was dead? Was he trying to end his own life? And was this even true? We do know he was acting intoxicated. When Stefan has arrived at Monti's farm, he said that Zander looked intoxicated. When Sondor showed up, he asked why Zander looked intoxicated. So now what his defense was saying is that Sonders took advantage of Zander's vulnerable state

and questioned him the entire drive to the station. The second reason Zander took back his confession is because he said, said it was a false confession that Saunders intimidated him on the car right over and that the questioning went on and on and the only way to make it stop was to confess. So in his drug-induced state of mind, Xander said he didn't see any way out. So that's when he confessed and told Saunders exactly what he wanted him to say. Zander was accusing Saunders of a crime. The judge, Ronald Hendricks, hadn't known any of this. So he asked Chris Saunders if he had used any threatening tactics to force Zander to make a confession. That resulted in a trial

against Saunders. But luckily, he had recorded the entire conversation. So Zander dug his own grave because Detective Zanders had never intended to show the judge or anyone the original conversation between him and Zander. But now that Zander falsely accused him, the recording could be used against him. Wow. So now at Saunders trial, Colonel Coughlin and Colonel Longa, the two cops that had taken Zander's confession at the station testified that Zander confessed after talking to Saunders and waived his right to an attorney. Saunders' offense showed the judge the audio recording of their conversation. And that's when the judge noticed the private investigator was using the reed technique of interrogation, which wasn't the wisest method. But in the recording,

you can hear Saunders asked Sander repeatedly, whether he's on drugs, and Zander repeatedly said he was just in shock. In the recording, Zander talks about hitting Marna and Sharnel to catch them off guard. The judge knew there was no way Zander could have known the autopsy results before they came back. Judge Hendricks decided to exonerate Chris Saunders, and this was evidence that Zander knew much more than he should have.

In preparation for Zander's trial, the prosecution put together a timeline. The last time Brandon and Sharnel texted was around 1 o'clock in the morning, And in Zander's confession, he said he showed up at 2 o'clock a.m. and he and Charnell talked. We don't know how long they talked, but we do know that Charnell sent a message at 3.42 a.m. to Ronnie and two messages at 4.17 that said she was sorry. Zander still claimed he didn't send these text messages. If he did, it would imply these murders were not a crime of passion.

If he wanted to stay out of jail, he couldn't admit any attempts to cover up his crime. But it was obvious, some, if not all of these texts were sent by the perpetrator. There are two scenarios, and I'm going to let you decide which one you think happened. The first scenario is Xander and Sharnel talked on the stairs, and Zander demanded to know her phone password. At 340, Zander was going through her phone in front of her and found that picture that in his mind he thought was disgusting. And he decided to send it to her dad.

Sharnall was upset. She went upstairs to change, which gave Zander 30 minutes to murder both Marna and Charnell, and then at 417, send two fake text messages, implying the friends had taken their own lives. Then he was back at his mom's farm at 5 o'clock in the morning, and he might have seen the Volvo on his way home. The other scenario is that Zander had the conversation,

killed Marna and then Charnell, and spent half an hour between 3.40 and 417 a.m. going through Charnell's phone. Prosecutors assumed the second scenario was the most accurate time. wine. Zander could have gotten Charnell's passport before he killed her, already known it, and the picture of Charnell in her bra didn't seem like an accident. He had a motive to send Ronnie that picture. It was to shame her. Zander told Saunders during their initial conversation

that he didn't like when Charnell took pictures of herself. If he wanted to ruin Charnell's image in her dad's mind, it would make sense that he sent it after she died. In most cases, a father is not going to look at this innocent selfie and be ashamed of their child. But in Xander's twisted mind, it was shameful for women to flaunt their beauty and their bodies. Maybe he wanted to tarnish her memory. Maybe he wanted to implicate Brandon in the crime. Maybe he wanted to create an excuse for why Charnell had taken her own life because she was embarrassed. In any case, Zander killed Sharnel and Marna between the hours of 2 and 4.20 a.m. And if the second scenario was true, Zander sent all the message. And it shows he was arrogant,

And this wasn't a crime of passion. He spent 30 whole minutes sitting in the middle of a crime scene scrolling to find every last secret. As for Marna, she'd been in the wrong place of the wrong time. She was loyal and she stuck up for her best friend, Charnell, no matter what. And Zander thought that was worth murder. Zander's lawyers quit due to a conflict of interest. And Zander got a new lawyer named Mumon Vessels. While Zander was waiting for his trial, he was allegedly jumped in prison.

So he applied for a bail hearing. And you're going to want to hear this. The prosecution came out fighting. They brought forward a letter that Sander had written his mom while he was in jail. And in that letter, he asked his mother to find two judges that she thought were corrupt enough that they could pay them off and make sure his bail application would go through. He said, if she didn't help him get out of jail, he would take his own life.

Wow. Talk about emotional manipulation with your own mother. And we know he did this with Charnel as well. threatening to hurt himself. Zander confessed that if he got out of jail, with the help of his mother, he would escape to Botswana and stay there for five years until no one was looking for him anymore.

And then he wrote, quote, I wish that for once you would just read my letter and do exactly as I say. Just be a mother for once in your life and help me." End quote. Zander sent that letter not knowing that letters sent from jail are public record. Everyone has access. I've run into a lot of cases where criminals don't know this, and now you know if you didn't know.

Nothing in jail is private. No conversations, phone calls, letters, nothing. At the hearing, a psychiatrist testified that Zander had paranoid personality disorder, and he was depressive, reclusive, impulsive, angry, and thought everyone was out to get him. He also thought his existence of the world was much more significant than other people's. He wasn't able to understand people's motives, so you would assume that everyone was stupid, and hated him, and he relied on manipulation to get what he wanted. This was consistent with what people knew about Tinder. He once posted on his WhatsApp status, quote,

you can't trust anyone, end quote. I'm sure you know what WhatsApp is, but it's run by Facebook or what we know is meta now. It's the most commonly used messaging platform in Europe and parts of Africa, and you can update your status on the app just like you would on Facebook. Several acquaintances suspected that he was a narcissist,

but I mean, I think most of the app, of us have said you can't trust someone at some point in our lives. But of course, Zander came to his own defense. And his lawyer decided to quit. He wouldn't say why, but this was only the beginning of Zander's defense attorney journey. He went through them like candy. I shouldn't feel bad for his parents, but I have a heart. And I have some empathy because his dad spent so much money on lawyers for Zander,

that he had to actually sell their family's farm. I don't always understand people's urged to defend their children at all costs when their children have clearly done something wrong. After the failed bail hearing, Xander said he didn't want bail. He realized if he was going to be released into the real world, he'd be a danger. People were starting to suspect him. Remember, the public hadn't. The public had been on his side. And at this point, he was even scared for his own life because who knows, maybe if Saffanus would come back and finish the job. Marna and Charnel's family waited over a year for Zander's trial to start. It was in Mabatou High Court,

in Mafia Kong. State prosecutor Johann Smith told the story of Zander, a jealous ex-boyfriend who confessed to the murders in front of Detective Saunders and then to the South African police. But he took back his statement when you realized he was up for life in prison. Prosecutor Smith came forward with more evidence against Zander. Marcus Fier had studied Xander's phone records and at 3.26 a.m. Saturday morning, guess where he was? The GPS put him at Stella High School. They couldn't pinpoint him exactly at Stella, but it was in the area. There aren't that many phone towers in rural South Africa, but Zander had not been at the field drinking. And then at 501 a.m., his phone finally pinged on Camille Fontaine Farm. If he had sent that last text at 417, he could

have easily left and gotten back to his mom's house if he had sped down the road. Zander's new attorney, Nevin Rye, said Detective Saunders had intimidated and fed Zander, information for a confession. Zander testified on his own behalf. Sure he did. He told one of his stories about the conversation on the stairs where Charnell left to put on long pants, and he left as soon as he realized she was serious with Brandon. However, Prosecutor Smith pointed out that Detective Saunders wouldn't have told Zander that Sharnel was wearing long pants. It was a very specific detail to bring up if you hadn't seen the crime scene or been there. Zander continued his testimony. He said that Saunders took advantage of him in the car, and Zander just gave the answers

that he was looking for. Then Sonders sat down with the other police and interrogated Zander for hours. Zander said he was nauseous, tired, drunk, and stressed. And after hours in an interrogation room, he confessed to what they wanted to hear. Well, the prosecution brought in the officers who had interviewed Zander, Colonel Coughlin and Colonel Longa. They both said that Chris Saunders wasn't there for Xander's statement. The trial ground to a halt. Neven Rye considered himself Zander's friend, but Zander had lied to him.

Due to conflicting interests, this attorney quit as well. And the trial was postponed until May of 2019. At this point, this trial was international news. People didn't understand why it had been postponed. The public was still not on Chris Sonder's side, but they didn't know that he had taped the conversation with Zander. However, the judge knew that.

And this is why the court of public opinion can be dangerous. And that's why waiting until trial is always best. That way, all the facts come out. That's one reason I don't cover unsolved cases on my channel. We don't have the facts. We don't have all the facts. We just have assumptions. And Zander didn't know the judge knew about this recorded confession.

I mean, at this point, the judge knew Zander was lying. The prosecution just had to provide enough clear evidence of guilt. Additionally, most people thought that Chris Saunders was hired by the family's private investigator. Now remember, he was hired by the school initially. And the public thought the families were biased. They didn't like Sanders, so it seemed obvious that Sondra was just doing everything to point the finger at an innocent teenager. And the public also thought that Saunders was being paid by the Stella High School. So his job was to make sure the perpetrator knew Sharnel and Marna so that the school wouldn't get sued

for leaving the gates open. Even if the gates had been shut, Sharnel and Marna could have led Zander in on their own or he could have jumped the gate. After all, he had done it before and threatened to do it. This was not the first time he snuck into a girl's hostel. And even if this information was in public, law enforcement had tons of circumstantial evidence against him. The actual trial was held in 2019,

when Zander was able to finally get another lawyer. The prosecution came forward with their original argument, but this time they included the recorded evidence of Xander's conversation with Saunders in the car. The judge has already heard it, and remember, the reason this is coming in at all is because Xander was the one who accused Saunders of making him confess. So Zander did this to himself,

and that confession was very convincing. The new defense attorney, Conrad Bester and Saki Nell, said that Zander's other attorneys had resigned because of personal problems, not because Zander had lied to them. They pointed the finger at Brandon. He'd been present on Friday night, and no one had treated him like a suspect. Zander didn't have any DNA or fingerprints at the crime scene, so he couldn't be responsible.

Well, Brandon testified for the prosecution. He explained he had been with Marna and Charnel and that his DNA would be at the crime scene. He loved Charnel. He testified, Zander used horrible and disrespectful names for women. Anastasia Visser was another prosecution witness. She went to a different high school, but she was a different high school, but she was a She played against Charnell in sports and she knew Xander from a fishing trip she went on. She had both of them on WhatsApp and they would text occasionally.

For a long time, Charnel complained to her about Xander's obsessive behavior and Anastasia supported her. Then Charnell broke up with Xander and Zander vented with Anastasia. Over the course of months, Zander and Anastasia texted more and more. They were attracted to one another. And I have to wonder if part of Anastasia's appeal was her nickname Lolly. The same name everyone used for Sharnel. The two of them had a flirtation ship, but they lived far from one another, so it never turned into anything serious.

At 6 o'clock p.m. on Thursday, May 24th, Anastasia was watching her favorite TV show when she says her phone rang. And it was Xander. He was yelling over the phone about Sharnel and Brandon. He told her if he saw Sharnel again, he wouldn't be able to control his anger, and he vowed to drive Sharnel so crazy that she would kill herself. herself. Zander also said Sharnel took risque photos of herself, and he bet she was sending them to Brandon. He told Anastasia he wanted to send them to her dad to show Ronnie how shameful his daughter was. Wow. If that's not telling, I don't know what is. Anastasia tried to decompress this situation.

She said she didn't think Zander was serious about any of it, and she hated being caught in the middle of his relationship with Sharnel. Anastia didn't tell anyone about this call, not even Sharnel, not the police, not her parents. But two days later, when she watched the news, Anastasia was overcome with guilt. She told her parents about Zander's call, and her parents convinced her to go to the police. The defense said,

Anasasia is lying, that she had a history of suspensions at her high school. They said she'd called Zander that night and wanted revenge against Zander because they had been in a relationship. And Zander broke up with her because he was still in love of Sharnal. So it was a big love triangle.

That was their defense. Anasasya denied all this. And now, the I Love You Brandon message sent from Charnell's phone to Ronnie made sense. It was an act of defamation against Charnell. And at the same time, he was venting his anger for our relationship with Brandon. How could Anasatia have known that Zander sent a message from Charnell's phone? Also, this narrowed down the timeline for when Zander had found out about Charnell and Brandon. It must have been that week.

It gave him a clear motive. And once again, Zander testified on his own behalf. And he had a whole new story. What a surprise. He said Charnell met him at midnight. So literally when she would have been hanging out with Marna and Brandon. He didn't get out of his car, but Sharnel came through the gate and met him and sat in his passenger seat. They had a long conversation according to him. And then he gave Sharnel the clothes he was dropping off.

And he left long before 3 a.m. During their conversation, Sharnel told Zander that she wanted to be with him. but Marna wouldn't let her. Brandon was just a ruse and a distraction for her. Zander said he wanted to be with Charnell and to leave Brandon in the dust, but Charnell said Marna wouldn't approve. She told him to take it up with Marna.

He said he left, he got home at four to see the Volvo truck. Zander said that the prosecution really needed to look into Brandon, that Zander was innocent, and it must have been the other guy. This was the first time that Zander had pointed the finger at Brandon in all of his statements. Why? I have a guess. Zander thought that Brandon hadn't heard that conversation with Sharnel over the phone. Remember how he called her?

And Sharnel said she was alone, but she pretended to walk out of the room, but she kept it on speaker. Zander didn't know that Brandon had heard his threat. He'd only see Brandon's concerned text to Sharnel from 1 o'clock in the morning when he looked through her phone. And there's a possibility that Stephanus mentioned Brandon when he came over to threaten Monty and Zander with a gun. But Zander didn't realize Brandon was such a thwart.

threat to the story until just before the second trial, when he got his fourth set of lawyers. Brandon was the only person that Zander could reasonably pin the murder on, but Zander wasn't as smart as he thought he was. That's a common theme with people like this. They always think they're smarter than everyone else. As for Zander's alibi, the Volvo truck, the defense sent an email to the transportation company that Mercia worked for. They asked the truck driver to testify in court. Since the prosecution proved that Xander's phone pinged at $3.50 in Stella, they wanted to know if anyone had seen Zander at 4 a.m. at Camille Fontaine Farm. But the truck driver never showed up.

The trucking company never replied. The prosecution asked Zander two questions. Did Mersha have access to the trucking company email? And did she have access to change the data on each truck? Zander said, I don't know. Had Zander's mom Mersha known that Zander was at Stella and sent a truck at 4 a.m. to create an alibi? Or could she have just changed the time the truck left in the system? Was this truck driver even a real person?

Had Zander seen the Volvo, assumed it was his mom's company's truck and made up a story? If the answer was yes to any of these questions, then Mershah might have assisted her son in covering up this murder. This was not a surprise. Zander had his mom in his back pocket. She loved her son, and she would never. think anything bad about him. Remember the end of the year prom event when Zander bought Charnell a dress? Well, Marcia was the one who supported that idea. Zander even told his mom,

he didn't like when Charnell wore makeup because he thought women looked bad with makeup. Marcia convinced him that makeup wasn't a bad thing, but she promised to do tasteful makeup on Charnell. She never thought that Zander dressing Charnell was controlling behavior, but he was manipulating her all along. Makeup might seem like a silly example, but but for Xander, it was one domino in a long chain of abuse and control, even if it was micro in nature. Finally, the prosecution asked Sander, why did he keep changing his story?

Every time he took the sand, he had another story. And Zander said, it was the fault of his old lawyers, you know, the ones who quit. He said whatever his lawyers wanted him to say, but he was the one who changed his plea to not guilty. So at this point, Zander doesn't have an alibi. He doesn't have a solid story, but what he does have was a ticket to jail.

On February 17th of 2020, Judge Hendricks said that Zander was a liar and a manipulator. He killed Marna while she was innocently washing her hands and then targeted Charnell. This was premeditated. He wanted to end their lives. The motive was jealousy and anger that Charnell had moved on to a new relationship with Brandon,

and Marna had supported her. When Zander learned that Charnell wasn't under his thumb and would never get back with him, he decided, she would never get with anyone else ever again. Even though it was Anders' first criminal offense, he was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, as it should be. After the verdict, both Marna and Charnell's family were exhausted.

Marna's mom had barely spoken to the media in the two years since her daughter's murder, but she held it together. She always said, I'm fine. She was stubborn and strong-willed, just like Marna. And she was relieved that there would be justice, but it wasn't over yet. They would have to wait until August for sentencing because COVID hit and everything got postponed. After the verdict, Monty was outraged. He had spent so much money for his son to be sent to jail. He stormed outside and slapped Marcus Fierra, the head investigator, across the face. Wow. Maybe we can see where some of the violence and anger issues came from. He slapped him so hard that Officer Fira

fell back in his chair. Monty said he would come for Chris Saunders next. In the months following, this Judge Hendricks would learn that Zander threatened to resolve this issue with Stephanas and Marna with a gun. I mean, he was going to find out eventually. And the judge was shocked. If his mind wasn't already made up, it was now. I do not think there's a jury involved in these cases.

As far as I could tell, South Africa had a lot of non-jury cases. But on August 7th, people flooded into the court. Ronnie and Stephanas sat next to each other, just like they had in every single hearing. Stephanas brought a giant photo of Marna and placed it on the back wall so she could watch over the entire courtroom. Stefanas brought it to remind Zander of what he had taken from the two families. Sonia was drained emotionally. She cared more about Charnell than anyone else in her life, and now she felt numb to the world.

It was like Charnell took away the positivity, the bubbly energy with her. Marna's mom was the only one who had not been able to face all of the hearings and court appearances. She was shattered and tired of facing Zander, and I get it. None of this would bring her daughter back. The judge gave Zander two life sentences. He will also be unfit to possess a gun for the rest of his life, but where and when would he need to possess one? I don't know. Judge Hendricks said in his speech, quote,

There is a huge outcry by society, the gender-based violence, which engulfs our society needs to be stopped. The violence perpetrated by men against him. women counterparts needs to end. The only way this can be stopped is to impose harsher sentences." End quote. And two life sentences was the harshest sentence he could deliver. Ronnie and Stefanus gasped and they threw their hands in the air. It was finally over.

Monty and Mersia were furious. They hugged onto their son. They were still convinced he never committed this crime. Zander tried to appeal a sentence and he failed. He requested new attorneys, which I think is ridiculous, He had his chance. He asked that the truck driver be summoned to testify, which I also think is ridiculous.

Do you think the truck driver is his mom? I'm not 100% sure. But the thought crossed my mind. I think there's something fishy about that. He also asked why they never tested Brandon's DNA, but Zander's first four defense attorneys didn't request Brandon's DNA. There was not enough evidence for Brandon to ever be a suspect.

And poor Brandon. I wish he could have asked Charnell to be his girlfriend. Sharnel and Marna had their entire lives ahead of them. They'll never get married, have children, have careers. Charnell will never become a successful photographer, and hundreds of animals will never receive Marna's care. But at least Zander will rot in prison. In 2022, the president of South Africa said that ending gender-based violence is the country's number one priority. This case and so many others could have ended differently if one man weren't on a power trip and actually respected the word no.

didn't love Charnell. He wanted power over her, and you couldn't have her so no one else could. Charnell and Marna's case has been covered by multiple South African networks, including some that can't be accessed here in America. When I was doing my research, I did come across an angry comment on Charnell's Instagram saying that this is a South African murder. It's not for Western and American eyes, and I understand where they're coming from, but I disagree. It may be feel differently and that's okay, but I've covered dozens of American cases where women are hurt by people they love. Our countries are more similar than they are different. This story is important to tell and important to hear, no matter where you're from or who you are. I hope that I can give

these victims a voice that travels worldwide. They deserve to be known and to be loved. I'm glad these two best friends were buried near each other and that when I tell their story, I get to talk about both of them and the deep connection that they have. I hope their memory lives on. I'll see you in my next video. Bye.