TimesLIVE Podcasts True Crime South Africa

True Crime South Africa

True Crime South Africa is the first victim-focused true-crime podcast in the country.

Host, Nicole Engelbrecht, researches each case herself using media coverage, trial footage, social media sources and often by talking to some of the individuals involved. Using her skills as a creative writer and her passion for true crime, she crafts each script to ensure that listeners are given a deep dive into the case mechanics as well as an understanding of the victims as human beings.

The podcast covers both solved and unsolved South African true crime cases. The unsolved cases are often cold cases which can benefit from awareness being brought to them. This concept has been used in the US for many years and to great success. The listenership formed around true crime podcasts becomes a community that advocates for victims and resolution for families. South African victims now have their own voice too.

True Crime South Africa publishes weekly, alternating between full-length case episodes and shorter minisodes which discuss true crime cases that are currently in the media. The podcast launched on the 22nd of June 2019 and is making waves in the South African podcast community. On the True Crime South Africa social media pages, South African true crime fans finally have a place to call home where they can express their views on cases and discuss the details with like-minded people.

True Crime South Africa is published in conjunction with Arena Holdings, publishers of TimesLIVE, BusinessLIVE, and SowetanLIVE. 

Keywords: crime, true crime, murder, abduction, South Africa, police, law and order
Weekly English Explicit South Africa True Crime · News Narrated by Scott Peter Smith
317 Episodes
260 – 280

Episode 41 - The Murder of Anene Booysen

In the early hours of the 2nd of February 2013, a security guard stumbled upon the body of a 17-year-old girl. She was barely clinging to life after enduring one of the most vicious sexual assaults South Africa had ever seen. With her last words she would name a man…
15 Oct 2020 49 min

Spotlight Minisode 20

In today's minisode we discuss some of the cases that are in the media at the moment. We also have a follow up to Episode 37 - The Screwdriver Rapist in which we chat two people who knew William van der Merwe at the time of his crimes. (24-hr trauma…
8 Oct 2020 20 min

Episode 40 - The Disappearance of Dawn Burn

A camping trip and reunion of three siblings goes horribly wrong, and when the sun rises in camp the next day, one of them is no longer there. 16 years later we are still asking: Where is Dawn Burn? (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support…
1 Oct 2020 56 min

Episode 39 - Salie Lingevelt: A 1940s Serial Killer

Serial killers are not a modern concept. These terrifying predators have been hunting victims for far longer than we know. In this episode, we explore some of the first cases of serial murder in South Africa, and find out how these "pioneers" of dastardly deeds, paved the way for those…
17 Sep 2020 28 min

Episode 38 - The Disappearance of Eugeine Zane Nel

On the 2nd of March 2016, Eugeine Zane Nel didn't go to work. Home sick with a migraine, his girlfriend left him asleep in bed. He has not been seen since (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support the show on PayPal https://www.paypal.me/truecrimesa) (https://www.facebook.com/EugeineZaneNelMissingperson) Support the…
10 Sep 2020 53 min

Spotlight Minisode 18

In today's spotlight minisode we discuss the recent serial killings in Mthwalume, and two recent convictions that South Africans have been waiting to see handed down (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support the show on PayPal https://www.paypal.me/truecrimesa) Support the Show on Patreon · Support the…
27 Aug 2020 16 min

Episode 37 - The Screwdriver Rapist

In the 1970s, a serial rapist stalked South Africa. He would eventually be caught, and sentenced to death. Although this should have been the end of this story, it was just the beginning (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support the show on PayPal https://www.paypal.me/truecrimesa) Support…
23 Aug 2020 36 min

Interview: Sean Baumann - Author of Madness

Dr Sean Baumann's book, Madness: Stories of Uncertainty and Hope, has recently been published and in this episode, I chat to him about the book as well as his experience as a psychiatrist specializing in schizophrenia and psychotic illnesses (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support…
13 Aug 2020 57 min

Episode 36 - The Unsolved Murder of Sibille Zanner

In September 2002, on a clear spring night, Sibille Zanner parked outside the home of her friends. She would be found half an hour later with a crossbow dart in her head. A year later, an arrest would be made, but this would just be the start of a mystery…
7 Aug 2020 58 min

Spotlight Minisode 17

A round-up of the most shocking and tragic true-crime cases in the South African media in the last few weeks. (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support the show on PayPal https://www.paypal.me/truecrimesa) (Link to Dead Curious Podcast: https://deadcuriouspod.wixsite.com/info) Support the Show on Patreon · Support the…
30 Jul 2020 19 min

Spotlight Minisode: The Missing

South Africa has a huge number of open, unsolved missing person cases at any given time. In this minisode, we discuss some of the advances that have been made by the SAPS to solve this problem and we look at 10 unsolved missing person cases (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support…
19 Jul 2020 29 min

Episode 34 - The Adlington Family Murders

On the 16th of January 2002, something was very wrong in the Adlington family home. The events of that morning would leave only one survivor, barely clinging to life, with a terrifying story to tell (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support the show on PayPal…
10 Jul 2020 1 hour

Interview with Tanya Farber

Just 5% of all murderers are female, but when they do commit murder, they are among the most heinous of criminals. Today we interview Tanya Farber, author of the compelling book, Blood on her Hands, and get some of her insights into women who kill (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support…
2 Jul 2020 37 min

Episode 33 - The Murder of Karabo Mokoena

In April 2017, 22-year-old Karabo Mokoena went missing. Just a few days later her badly burned body was found in a field. Her boyfriend, Sandile Mantsoe claimed she had committed suicide. The truth was far more horrific.(24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support the show on…
26 Jun 2020 1 hour

Spotlight Minisode 15

Although crime statistics have plummeted during lockdown, the most horrific of criminals has not been stopped by its regulations. In our first minisode since the start of lockdown we discuss some of the vicious murders that have been committed in the last two months. Our first crime fiction book review…
28 May 2020 19 min

Episode 30 - The Murder of Taliep Petersen

On the 16th of December 2006, South Africa lost one of its brightest stars in the performing arts. Taliep Petersen was gunned down in what, at the time, seemed to be a home invasion gone wrong. Soon though, evidence would emerge that this devastating loss had been caused by someone…
15 May 2020 48 min

Episode 29 - The Jeppe Pyromaniac

1997 was a year in which a rare type of serial killer would make himself known in South Africa. The Jeppe Pyromaniac was not one of the country's most prolific serial killers by any stretch, but he was certainly one of the most unique. All the more confounding in this…
8 May 2020 47 min

Episode 28 - The Murder of Gabriela Kabrins Alban

On the 29th of July 2015, staff at a Camps Bay hotel entered a room and discovered the brutally beaten and defiled body of 39-year-old American tourist, Gabriela Kabrins Alban. In what would become an international case, her Guatemalan boyfriend was arrested for her murder. (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support…
1 May 2020 1 hr 08 min

Episode 27 - The Murder of Sheldean Human

On the 18th of February 2007, a quiet Sunday afternoon, 7-year-old Sheldean Human vanished from the front yard of her home. Two weeks later her murderer would point out the location of her body and questions would begin to be asked about more than just her death. (24-hr trauma helpline…
24 Apr 2020 48 min

Episode 26 - The Murder of Michael Van Eck

On the 3rd of April 2011, a gruesome discovery in a cemetery in Welkom shocked the country. Part of a dismembered body was found in a shallow grave, but it would be the location of the rest of the remains and the young couple who were arrested for the crime…
16 Apr 2020 1 hr 31 min
260 – 280