Killers: Caught on Camera (2023-…): Season 1, Episode 8 - Logan and Hannah - full transcript
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It just sounds like something bad
is happening to her.
-I heard her scream, "No, stop it."
-I heard some gun shots.
-Whatever it is, drop it.
-It's not true that I killed my wife.
We know what happened.
The video tells us what happened.
The camera doesn't lie.
This time
on Killers Caught on Camera.
-I want to see my son.
-Calm down, please calm down.
In the UK,
a five-year-old boy goes missing
in the middle of the night...
If he's unconscious, he needs me.
He needs warm clothes.
He needs Mom. He needs his mom...
...as police desperately search
for answers.
-Logan!
-Logan!
Was he dead? Was he in danger?
Or had he been taken by someone?
And in South Africa,
a woman is found dead in a field...
There's a point of time
where she realizes
that they don't intend
to let her live.
...as law enforcement piece together
the 11-hour carjacking
that resulted in her death.
One of the assailants tells him,
"Quiet or she dies."
Bridgend, Wales.
Logan Mwangi was a 5-year-old boy
who lived with his mother,
Angharad Williamson,
and stepfather, John Cole.
He was a very happy, polite, chatty,
young boy, a little bit cheeky
but very affectionate and just had
a real thirst for learning.
Everyone just thought he was
a really lovely little boy.
5:45 a.m., 31st July 2021,
a frantic 999 call was made.
-Please, please help me, please!
-Where are you?
My son, I don't know,
he's not here.
Send somebody. He's not here.
-Who's not there?
-My son, my baby, he's not here.
-When did you see him last?
-I tucked him into bed last night
and I've just got up for my son,
and the other one's not here.
Logan!
Philip Dewey is a correspondent
for Wales Online.
She had gone into Logan's room
and he had disappeared.
She said she checked the backdoor
and it was open
but Logan hadn't taken
his shoes or a coat.
She said she was absolutely petrified
that he...
he had left the house,
was somewhere, cold and afraid.
After Angharad called 999,
John and his 13-year-old stepson,
Craig,
searched the neighborhood
as captured
on a home surveillance system.
-Logan!
-Logan!
Within ten minutes, police officers
were looking everywhere,
everywhere that Logan
might have gone to.
Friends and neighbors
and John and Craig
were out looking for Logan as well.
-What's your partner's name?
-Angharad.
My boss is with Angharad.
What's your name?
-Craig.
-How old are you, Craig?
-Thirteen.
-Thirteen.
-Is he okay?
-I honestly don't know.
We will go this way, come on.
The police needed to get information
from the family.
Officers asked them to go
to the house.
We'll talk to you up at the house.
Go on.
-Is he okay?
-I don't know.
A police bodycam filmed Angharad
distraught on the doorstep.
Angharad was upset, as any mother
would be in that situation.
It was about finding out
what had happened.
If he's unconscious, he needs me.
He needs warm clothes.
He needs Mom. He needs his mom...
-Is Logan okay?
-I don't know, buddy, I don't.
I'm sorry.
Kirsty Bennett
is a criminal psychologist.
When we have a child disappearing,
our first concern is obviously
where is that child
and what's happened to them.
We have to cooperate with the family
who are going to be able to give us
ideas about where Logan might be.
-Has he got a father?
-His biological father's in London.
-Okay.
-I want to see my son.
Calm down, please calm down.
The mother was beside herself
with worry,
and they were having to deal
with that aspect
of trying to reassure her
and calm her down.
-I feel so useless, though.
-I know.
Not knowing what happened,
there was a range of possibilities
about what they were facing.
Like was he was he dead or alive?
Was he in danger
or had he been taken by someone?
These were questions
yet to be answered.
The investigation to find out
what happened to him
was critical in those stages.
This is all my fault.
Less than an hour after Logan
went missing,
police located him
just a few hundred meters
from the family home.
Two police officers were searching
in nearby Pandy Park
along the river Ogmore
when out the corner
of one of the officer's eye, they saw
what looked like a body
floating in the river Ogmore.
At that point,
one of the officers dived in,
got into the river
and retrieved the body.
And it was quite apparent from
the descriptions that this was Logan.
Logan was pronounced dead
at the scene.
Angharad was given
the devastating news.
Where is Logan?
Where is Logan, please?
What happened to him?
The police's initial impressions
about what had happened to Logan
looked like he had wandered
into the river and had drowned.
There was
a lot of unanswered questions
about how he'd come to be
in the river, how he had left.
Police were keeping an open mind.
His body was taken to hospital
and then sent for a post-mortem.
While the family were dealing
with Logan's death,
investigators go to work,
piecing together what happened.
They started with a key piece
of body-worn footage
recorded at the house
when the police first arrived.
I don't know.
Right now, the best thing...
Why is no one telling me
what's going on?
I don't know!
Coral Dando is
a professor of Forensic Psychology.
She used to be a police officer
and understands detective work.
They are very good at what we refer
to as situational awareness.
So they'll walk into a situation
or a context and be very cognizant,
very aware of what's going on.
They don't acknowledge it,
but it will all, you know,
have been taken in.
What we actually see on the camera
is the washing machine going off.
And that's a bit concerning
because if they are asleep
and they've woken up
to find Logan missing,
you wouldn't put
the washing machine on.
Unusual behavior
when your child's missing
and you're absolutely traumatized,
you're grief-stricken,
you're hysterical.
The contents of the machine
raised more questions.
When police looked inside,
there was bedding
that belonged to Logan being washed.
Their story wasn't adding up,
but the police still needed
more evidence.
They spoke to a number of neighbors
to see if they had CCTV cameras
that could be used to see
how Logan had left the house,
whether on his own
or whether there had been
another explanation.
Emi Polito is an expert witness
and video analyst.
Luckily, the police find CCTV footage
of a neighboring property
pointing directly at Logan's bedroom.
Dr Vaslieous Karagianopoulous
is a leading figure
in digital forensics.
There is light turning on
in Logan's room
during the night
on multiple occasions
and it stays on for many minutes.
Angharad told police she went to bed
and slept all night.
This footage suggests that there are
people awake and not asleep in beds.
Someone had been busy.
With the CCTV, they find out
something else is going on.
Two figures were seen leaving
from the back of the house
in the middle of the night.
They were carrying something
and walking up the garden path
in the direction of the river.
At the same time, we can actually see
someone opening the curtains
in Logan's bedroom.
Given that Logan's mom's account
was that she's been asleep all night
and there was no activity
in the property during the night,
clearly, the police
have now information
to suspect that something
more sinister is going on.
Detectives wanted to re-examine
the 999 call made by Angharad.
The CCTV in the daylight
now shows Logan's mom
coming out of the property,
making the 999 call.
-Please, please help me, please!
-Where are you?
My son, I don't know,
he's not here!
There's quite an emotional response
from Logan's mom,
which we would normally anticipate,
but she's not really crying.
-Okay, take a breath...
-Where is he?
The operator was trying
to reassure her,
but she was having none of it.
It's hard to pin her down and get her
to engage with the police.
I know this is terrifying.
I need you to breathe
so I can get the information I need.
It starts to raise suspicions
as to why
she's not giving the information
being asked
when she's so concerned
about her child being missing.
Where does the back gate lead to?
The road.
It leads onto a road as opposed
to a field or anything like that,
does it?
The operator was trying to cope
with the situation,
but it seemed to be
something melodramatic
about the way she was acting
and possibly not quite ringing true.
The time of the day is interesting
because Logan's five years old.
We wouldn't expect him to leave
the house during those hours.
Because of that time,
the house is secure.
It's locked. He wouldn't have access
to leave the property.
That wouldn't immediately raise
suspicions at 5:40 in the morning
that a five-year-old boy
has seemingly wandered
out of the house.
As suspicions grew, the police
had another look at the footage
of John and Craig out searching
for Logan.
Logan!
People go incredibly far
to cover up their crimes.
And search parties are not irregular.
Pretending to look for them.
These can be a package
of that deceptive narrative
you're trying to spin
to convince people
that you're just an innocent parent
who's looking for their loved one.
He's unconscious.
Why is he unconscious?
The footage in the kitchen
became increasingly important.
I don't know!
So when police arrive
at these sorts of situations,
they have to tread a complex path
because they have no idea
whether, on this occasion
Angharad, so Logan's mother,
is telling the truth or whether
she is acting out a trauma response
or a grief response
to the terrible news
that her child is missing.
So they have to be careful.
They want to gather information.
And in order to do that,
they need to just let her talk.
Because at this point, there is
no concept or no understanding
that he's actually dead.
There are elements
about her behavior
on the body-worn camera footage
that are interesting
to psychologists such as myself.
He needs Mom. He needs his mom...
She's screeching, she's howling,
she's saying an awful lot.
-I feel so useless, though.
-I know.
But there are no details,
no real information.
There's nothing that
the police officers could really use
in terms of trying to seek out
where Logan is.
This is all my fault.
Are there any verifiable details?
And there are very few.
But, of course, in a trauma response,
that might well be the case.
So it's really difficult.
She's dropping down to her knees
in a traumatic behavioral way,
which she thinks is how a parent
in her situation should behave.
Why am I not allowed to see
my biological son?
You would expect a mother to be
upset and even quite hysterical.
But this was
sort of something different.
-What is going on?
-Look at me.
Focus, focus, focus.
One minute she was wailing,
crying for her baby.
Next minute, she was aggressive
towards officers.
-Next minute, in denial.
-I want to see my son!
Calm down, please calm down.
People who feel like they're not able
to mask their true emotions enough
or not show the right emotion enough,
you get someone leaning more
and more and more
and almost becoming more theatrical
and more and more obvious,
even though they want the opposite.
Investigators concluded
that the footage of the two figures
leaving the house at 2:43 a.m.
were John and Craig
who carried Logan's body
to the river.
A minute later, in Logan's bedroom,
it was Angharad
who turned the light on and off
and opened the curtains.
It was enough to implicate
all three in Logan's death.
1st August, 2021.
You're under arrest, okay?
-I haven't done anything wrong.
-Okay.
When the police officers
start to arrest her,
she turns from being
grief-stricken, hysterical
to starting to lash out verbally
at the police officer.
How can you think this is me?
How can you even assume
that I have anything to do
with my beautiful child's death
and so on and so forth.
-So we get a switch straightaway.
-What happened to him?
I can't explain anything further.
Why is no one talking to me?
You're supposed to be helping,
not arresting me
-when I'm telling you...
-Okay.
She's pointing. She's shouting.
And this behavior suggests
that she's now in panic mode.
What is wrong with you guys?
You're supposed to be helping me!
Angharad, I understand
you're upset...
Is your son dead?
Has your son been found in a river?
-Angharad!
-Angharad!
What she's now is really cross.
You're very upset.
We'll investigate...
-I'm very upset. I've lost my son!
-She's being quite aggressive.
She realizes that it's all failed.
It's all coming down.
-Don't take my children away.
-It's very self-preservation.
She's very concerned
about what's going to happen to her
and her involvement in it
rather than Logan
and the circumstances
surrounding his murder.
Why am I not allowed
to see my biological son?
One of the really interesting things
that emerges from the footage
is this clear performative grief.
-Angharad, sit by here now. Sit down.
-I haven't done anything wrong!
She listens to what's being said
and then it kicks off
and all starts again.
Angharad couldn't have acted
without John Cole.
I'm arresting you on suspicion
of murder.
-What?
-This police officer here is involved
in the arrest procedure.
He will be talking, watching,
gathering information.
-What?
-John, calm down a second.
-What I'm going to do now...
-I've just found out my son is dead.
He's happy to provide a story
which seems to be well-practiced.
John's 13-year-old stepson, Craig,
was also taken into custody.
I'm arresting you on suspicion of
the murder of Logan Mwangi, alright?
It has come to light...
We have a witness,
saying that you wanted to kill Logan.
He told his foster family that
he wanted to kill Logan
whom he referred
to as the 5-year-old.
There's also further evidence
and information from other witnesses
to speak to you about, okay?
That's why you need to be arrested.
Here we have
body cam footage of Craig,
Angharad's boyfriend's stepson,
being arrested.
He just stands there with his hands
in his pockets.
-He says and does nothing.
-I'm under arrest.
-Just do as you're told, please.
-Angharad.
-You have done nothing wrong.
-I know.
-Get out of my room.
-Hey, come on now.
-I'm not messing.
-The fact that a 13-year-old boy
was capable of taking part
in such a brutal act
was just something
that no one would have expected.
When you're 13 years old,
you don't have the full-sized brain
that you will have later on in life.
You are going to make
worse decisions overall
because you don't have
as much brain.
So holding children who are
that young as responsible as adults
is one of those tricky things.
And in most parts of the world,
we don't.
But we make exceptions
for extreme things like murder.
Kids understand the consequences
of something that extreme.
We can't point to a single difference
between someone
who kills and someone who doesn't.
But we can look at the risk factors.
He had lots of them.
An unstable environment growing up.
Callous, unemotional traits.
He seemed to struggle to adjust
into families
and to be part of the family unit.
He was moved
into another high-risk situation.
There's just a whole series of things
going wrong here for this kid
to mature in a normal, healthy way.
The results of the autopsy on Logan
revealed the extent
of what he endured in his home.
He had suffered 56 injuries.
Among the injuries on Logan's body
was a serious injury to his abdomen,
which had caused a large amount
of blood loss.
There was two brain injuries
caused by blunt-force impact
in the days leading up to his death.
One doctor said that these injuries
were normally seen in people
who had fallen from a great height
or in a high-velocity car crash.
Further research revealed
the fatal injury
was a culmination
to months of suffering.
Logan, unfortunately, has a history
of abuse within the family.
People have come forward who know
the family,
have recounted this abuse.
About a year before Logan's death,
he was taken to hospital by Angharad,
who believed he was suffering
a dislocated shoulder.
In fact, he had fractured one
of his bones and was in severe pain.
Angharad later told police
that she had popped Logan's shoulder
back into place
after he had fallen
and sent him to bed with Calpol.
It was also revealed that a lack of
communication with Social Services
resulted in
a series of missed chances
to protect Logan.
John Cole had
a bit of a checkered past.
He had convictions for petty crime,
robbery and burglary and battery.
Because of Cole's convictions,
Social Services became involved
with Logan.
He had his own social worker
who was looking in on the family.
In the same month that Logan
was murdered,
Social Services made one
of their checks on the family.
When Social Services went to visit
Logan at home in July,
he had contracted COVID,
so he was isolated
and didn't get to see him,
weren't able to visibly check
that he was okay.
They should have had some concern
about how is he,
what's going on with him?
While they described Angharad
as overbearing,
they believed that she loved
her child and cared for him.
At first suspicious of John
and his demeanor,
they came to trust him.
Eventually, Logan's case
was downgraded.
There was no longer a need
for as much monitoring as previously.
Shortly after the visit
from Social Services,
Angharad and John applied
for custody of John's stepson,
Craig.
Like John,
he also had a troubled past.
Craig became involved
with Social Services
after he was assaulted
by his biological mother,
who was then sectioned
under the Mental Health Act.
He had been in a number
of foster families and in care.
Craig had a history
within Social Services
for quite inappropriate,
violent behavior and attitudes
towards his foster carers.
He wanted to play murder games
with his foster sisters.
He had been torturing the family pet.
The carers were quite concerned
about how that behavior
was manifesting.
Playing really violent games
and fantasizing about murder
or talking about murder,
those are the kinds of things
that a 13-year-old
that can be indicative
of conduct disorder,
which is what we call kids
who sometimes go on to become
psychopaths or develop psychopathy.
When you don't really feel
the same emotions,
especially empathy.
Four out of five kids who have
those symptoms will grow out of them
and one out of five won't.
John and Angharad were applying
for full custody of Craig.
Despite Cole's previous convictions
and Craig's complex needs,
he was granted custody of Craig.
Five days later,
Logan was murdered.
John was sentenced to life in prison
with a minimum of 29 years.
Angharad was sentenced to life
in prison with a minimum of 28 years.
More disturbing facts came out
in the trial
about how Logan was treated by
Angharad and John
when he was in their care.
Logan was made to do press-ups
when he was naughty.
John Cole would sit over him
and make sure he completed
a number of exercises
in order to punish him.
He was also denied food
when the family were having KFC.
He was told
he wasn't allowed to have food
and was just given
a bowl of cereal to eat.
Neighbors described seeing Logan
being made to stand outside
with no shoes on as punishment.
At one point,
the social worker discovered
that there was a burn on his neck.
The reason given was
that he'd burnt in on a hot tap.
But Cole later claimed that
Angharad had placed
a hot coffee spoon on his neck.
There wasn't a shred of remorse
between them.
Angharad continued to be self-pitying
and maintained her innocence,
while John Cole pathetically looked
at the floor
and claimed that he had nothing
to do with Logan's death.
Mulligan was sentenced
to life detention
in a young offenders institute
with a minimum of 15 years.
Usually, anonymity is maintained
for children.
There's this assumption that
the things you do in your childhood
are different
than the adult you'll grow into.
You shouldn't have to carry
that baggage forever
because of bad decisions made
with a brain not fully developed
in circumstances
where you were a dependent.
Society's supposed
to be taking care of you.
So your failures are reflecting
on us as a society,
not just on you as the child.
And so the fact that anonymity
is waived is usually
because it's seen as to be so much
in the public interest
and it's balanced
against the rest of the kid
and it's seen as more important that
the society knows who this person is
than it is that the kid is protected,
which is really tricky.
The CCTV footage in this case
was the main evidence
which led to the convictions
of the three murderers.
Without that, we'd never have known
how Logan left the house,
whether he left of his own accord
or the truth of what happened,
that he had been murdered
inside the house
and his body discarded
by his stepfather and stepbrother.
The footage of Angharad's behavior
as well was also crucial.
It showed that this was not a mother
who was scared for her child.
It was someone who was taking part
in a performance
to cover up what had happened.
When news of Logan's death
broke out where he lived
and went to school, the reaction
was one of horror.
The fact that
a young, innocent five-year-old child
had been found dead in the river
was horrifying enough.
That three people had been arrested
on suspicion of his murder
was absolutely horrifying
for the members of the community.
The abuse and the treatment
experienced
in the months leading up to his death
must have been horrific.
He was a young, small, innocent boy
who was being abused
and mistreated
by the people who are meant to love
and protect him
and provide a safe home for him,
and he was given anything but that.
He must have lived
a lonely, painful existence
during that time.
He'll never be forgotten
by the community
as a very sweet, young boy
who just met
the most horrendous end
at the hands of those
who should have cared for him.
Almost every crime now contains
some kind of digital fingerprint.
Particularly for
homicide investigations,
the inclusion of video footage
is considered the gold standard.
Local law enforcement agencies
rely on home security, business
and street cameras
to catch offenders
who would otherwise get away
with it.
Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2017.
Aron Hyman is a journalist
for The Times and Sunday Times
in the Western Cape.
A very typical small student town.
You have these mountains
all around you,
these rolling hills with vineyards.
This perfectly quaint little town.
It was also home
to 21-year-old Hannah Cornelius.
Hannah Cornelius was
a young student
at the University of Stellenbosch.
She was
a wonderful, soft, loving person
to her friends
and everybody that she knew.
Kirsty Bennett
is a criminal psychologist.
Hannah was described
by family and friends
as a very empathetic,
compassionate young woman.
Hannah had many friends,
including Cheslin Marsh.
He was studying theology.
Also just a young, carefree man,
you know, trying to get through
his studies and enjoying...
enjoying life as a young student.
27th May, 6:00 a.m.
A couple woke up to the sound
of someone in distress.
The owners of the house came out
and saw that this young man was
in incredible distress and bleeding.
-It was Cheslin Marsh.
-He had gaping wounds on his head.
He was in a terrible, traumatic
and emotional state.
They called the police.
Cheslin explained that he
and Hannah had been kidnapped
by three men.
Hannah as a student
had a blue VW Golf
that she had inherited
from her grandmother.
He described Hannah's vehicle,
so the blue city Volkswagen,
and he described his four attackers.
Cheslin told them
that Hannah was still missing.
The police already had information
about a young woman.
She was found at 6:30 a.m.
on Saturday
the 27th May,
by workers at a nearby farm.
She had been declared dead
at the scene.
She was found face down
and with severe wounds to her head
and stab wounds
to the back of her neck.
With Cheslin's help, the body
was quickly identified as Hannah.
Cheslin told the police
about the traumatic events
of the night before.
Friday nights in Stellenbosch,
it's bubbly, it's buzzing.
They'd been out dancing.
They'd been playing dominoes.
They'd been out, having a nice time.
Quite early in the morning,
Hannah and Cheslin had left a bar,
got into the car and Hannah offered
to drop Cheslin at his home.
The two of them parked
in a parking lot.
Police looked at CCTV footage
from the night before.
You can clearly see
this Volkswagen hatchback there.
Hannah and Cheslin
are in the vehicle at this point.
Emi Polito is an expert witness
and video analyst.
The four individuals are walking
towards the camera.
We can start identifying them
in the sense
that potentially, we are looking
at four males here.
We can even get to the point
where we can talk a little bit
about the clothing assemble
and what they are wearing.
They appear to come back into view
from a different direction.
You can see the men looking
at the car
while they are walking past it
as though they're scoping it out.
What is it that these guys are doing
at this time in the morning?
You can see the men approach
the car from two directions,
both from the driver's side
where Hannah Cornelius was sitting
and from the passenger side.
The driver seat window
was slightly open.
He thrusts a hand through,
gripping a screwdriver.
And he puts the screwdriver
with the sharp end pointed
at her chest.
Cheslin then tries to grab
the screwdriver,
and at that point,
another assailant gets
into the backseat of the car
and opens a flick knife
and points it at Cheslin.
One of the assailants tells him,
"Quiet or she dies."
I'm seeing random flashes of light
which are suspicious to me
in terms of could this be
some request for help.
Hannah is pleading with them,
telling them,
"Please take whatever you want,
but please let us go."
At that point,
one of the men walks away,
presumably with some
of the stolen goods.
The rest of the three men put Hannah
in between the two front seats.
And Cheslin is in the back seat
with one of the other assailants,
who is armed,
and then they drive off.
The assailants reassured Cheslin
and Hannah
that they just needed their car.
They just want to drive somewhere.
Then they're going to drop them off.
They'll be let go.
Everything will be fine.
The next time we see Hannah
is about seven kilometers
outside of Stellenbosch
on sort of a rural back road
running in between farmland.
It's quite a quiet place.
Cheslin told police that
they stopped at a gas station.
Detectives sourced
the CCTV footage
and found the blue Volkswagen
pulling in at 4:34 a.m.
We see a passenger occupying
the passenger seat.
I think it would be quite reasonable
to assume that this is Hannah.
Between the time
that they left Stellenbosch
and the time they arrived
at the gas station,
the hijackers had taken Cheslin out
of the car and put him in the boot.
One of the hijackers
then gets out of the vehicle,
and at this point,
he's got Cheslin's bank card.
He then walks to the ATM
and he attempts to draw cash
inside a shop at the gas station.
This is
a considerable amount of time
where this person here is attempting
to withdraw money out of the ATM.
I'm seeing
different screens flashing
and fingers doing all sort of things
on that keyboard.
He kind of appears to be leaving
the scene deflated and disappointed.
Cheslin gave the hijackers
the wrong PIN code to his bank card,
presumably to buy time for them.
Or perhaps he just didn't want them
to steal his money.
This CCTV footage
is the last time
that Hannah was captured alive.
It's clear at this point that the men
are becoming more volatile,
more irate.
They are angry and aggressive
with Cheslin.
They take him
to sort of a forested area.
They force him out of the boot
and order him to lay his head down
on a hard surface, on a rock.
Two men come and stand over him
with bricks broken in half.
And at that moment, he closes
his eyes and he prays.
And that's the last thing
he can remember.
When they get back into the vehicle,
Hannah is there with three men
who had taken her.
There's going to be a time
where she realizes
that they don't intend
to let her live
and she is going to die.
The men drove Hannah
into some farmland
where she was sexually assaulted.
When we look at certain crimes,
we may not have had
the specific intention
of committing such awful acts
like rape or murder.
Sometimes we work on
the opportunity that it's available.
We have a victim
that we can offend against.
It's going to be really hard
to decide not to take part
because you run the risk of losing
your position in the gang,
not being trusted by your peers,
so once that decision is made,
you've really got to go
with what everybody else is doing.
From there, they took a large rock
and they put her head on the floor
and they crushed her head
with this rock twice.
Then they stabbed her
in the back of her neck
to make sure that she was dead.
Hannah's body was found
and reported a few hours later,
but the three men
did not stop there.
The men drive around.
They smoke drugs.
They then kidnap another woman
and take her bank card from her,
drive her to a petrol station
and attempt to draw money.
She is in the back of the car
when two of the offenders get out
and they withdraw 3000 Rand
from her account.
They make it look like a normal day,
going into a petrol station,
withdrawing money.
They don't look agitated,
look very calm.
They look like they been doing it
for a long time
and are comfortable with it.
It doesn't look like
they are improvising or panicking.
Just normal business for them.
It shows the lack of remorse
and lack of emotional attachment
or even understanding
what just has happened.
They drop her off and release her
and then drive back
towards Stellenbosch.
Police issued
a "Be On the Look Out"
for the blue Volkswagen
and three men.
A police detective vehicle driving
along a road near Stellenbosch
spots the blue Volkswagen Golf
and starts pursuing it,
leading to a high-speed car chase.
The detectives pursue them
and chase them down a farm road.
These people have got
no intention of stopping.
They don't care about the damage
or the hurt that they leave behind.
They basically reach a dead end,
and the men jump out of the vehicle.
You can see the detectives
chasing two men at that stage.
One of the men
had already been dropped off.
The detectives apprehend both men
as they tried to flee
into the riverbed.
The two men were identified
as Geraldo Parsons
and Vernon Witbooi.
They are taken in for questioning.
The police then find out that
these two men had been to prison.
They have a criminal history,
and they are part
of a prominent South African gang.
The third man was identified
as Eben Van Niekerk.
A fourth man, Nashville Julius,
was also arrested
for taking part
in the initial carjacking.
Vernon and Nashville
gave confessions
because the police
had convinced them
that their friends were talking
and that they had cases against them.
Hannah didn't talk at all.
She just looked out in front of her.
The men are viewing her as an object.
She means nothing to them.
And there's no concern
on their behalf about how she feels,
how she is experiencing that moment
because it's about their own gain
and gratification.
It's October 2018 when the trial
starts in the Cape Town High Court.
Their demeanor in court was stoic.
They would often smirk and laugh.
When Cheslin had to testify,
they tried to intimidate him
in the witness stand.
The four men were not really taking
things very seriously.
They were laughing,
joking among themselves.
We don't really see any remorse
for the various crimes
that they've committed.
For the family, it's horrific to know
that how they treated their daughter
in her last moments was awful.
And they think it's a joke.
The three main perpetrators,
Geraldo Parsons, Eben Van Niekerk
and Vernon Witbooi
were given life sentences.
They will spend 25 years in prison
without the possibility of parole.
Nashville Julius was sentenced
to 15 years.
CCTV footage was crucially important
in this case.
Without it, they might not
have been able to piece together
some of the key details
that basically tied the men
to the crimes.
They might even not have been able
to verify Cheslin's testimony.
Cheslin Marsh was left deaf
in one ear.
One of the only positives
of this story is that
Cheslin miraculously survived
and that he went on to live a life.
He's studying law. He's married.
He's got kids.
It must take incredible strength
for a person
to ever recover
from something like that.
Hannah's family was left
with a lifetime of grief.
Hannah's mother started
the Hannah Cornelius Foundation
in a nearby
underprivileged community,
which helps
with early childhood development
for street kids
and kids that come out
of difficult household situations.
A year later, more tragedy
for Hannah's family
when her mother went for a swim
in the ocean.
She was swept out at sea
and drowned,
but there's also others who suspect
that maybe the psychological toll
was too much for her
and that she might have taken
her own life.
The murder of Hannah Cornelius
had a big impact
on South African society.
Of all the women and especially
young women, children,
being raped
and murdered in South Africa,
Hannah's case was, I think,
particularly shocking
in its brutality.
There were a lot of conversations
about women's rights in South Africa,
about how violent we are
as a society.
About how patriarchal our society is,
how men view women.
I think there was a lot of reflection
from South African society.
I think the courts and police were
sensitized to these sorts of cases.
There was a lot of public outpouring.
I remember
when they were sentenced,
the gallery was full of people
who had just come to watch the case,
and they cried out in joy
but also, I guess, in anger.
The positives is the fact that
we started confronting
as a society the underlying problems
that lead to men going through
the criminal justice system
and coming out of the system
after having served time
for the same crimes
that they would like to commit again.
We still have many lessons to learn
from that because after that,
so many other women were raped
and killed in South Africa.
Translated by: Evelyn Towne
Iyuno
---
It just sounds like something bad
is happening to her.
-I heard her scream, "No, stop it."
-I heard some gun shots.
-Whatever it is, drop it.
-It's not true that I killed my wife.
We know what happened.
The video tells us what happened.
The camera doesn't lie.
This time
on Killers Caught on Camera.
-I want to see my son.
-Calm down, please calm down.
In the UK,
a five-year-old boy goes missing
in the middle of the night...
If he's unconscious, he needs me.
He needs warm clothes.
He needs Mom. He needs his mom...
...as police desperately search
for answers.
-Logan!
-Logan!
Was he dead? Was he in danger?
Or had he been taken by someone?
And in South Africa,
a woman is found dead in a field...
There's a point of time
where she realizes
that they don't intend
to let her live.
...as law enforcement piece together
the 11-hour carjacking
that resulted in her death.
One of the assailants tells him,
"Quiet or she dies."
Bridgend, Wales.
Logan Mwangi was a 5-year-old boy
who lived with his mother,
Angharad Williamson,
and stepfather, John Cole.
He was a very happy, polite, chatty,
young boy, a little bit cheeky
but very affectionate and just had
a real thirst for learning.
Everyone just thought he was
a really lovely little boy.
5:45 a.m., 31st July 2021,
a frantic 999 call was made.
-Please, please help me, please!
-Where are you?
My son, I don't know,
he's not here.
Send somebody. He's not here.
-Who's not there?
-My son, my baby, he's not here.
-When did you see him last?
-I tucked him into bed last night
and I've just got up for my son,
and the other one's not here.
Logan!
Philip Dewey is a correspondent
for Wales Online.
She had gone into Logan's room
and he had disappeared.
She said she checked the backdoor
and it was open
but Logan hadn't taken
his shoes or a coat.
She said she was absolutely petrified
that he...
he had left the house,
was somewhere, cold and afraid.
After Angharad called 999,
John and his 13-year-old stepson,
Craig,
searched the neighborhood
as captured
on a home surveillance system.
-Logan!
-Logan!
Within ten minutes, police officers
were looking everywhere,
everywhere that Logan
might have gone to.
Friends and neighbors
and John and Craig
were out looking for Logan as well.
-What's your partner's name?
-Angharad.
My boss is with Angharad.
What's your name?
-Craig.
-How old are you, Craig?
-Thirteen.
-Thirteen.
-Is he okay?
-I honestly don't know.
We will go this way, come on.
The police needed to get information
from the family.
Officers asked them to go
to the house.
We'll talk to you up at the house.
Go on.
-Is he okay?
-I don't know.
A police bodycam filmed Angharad
distraught on the doorstep.
Angharad was upset, as any mother
would be in that situation.
It was about finding out
what had happened.
If he's unconscious, he needs me.
He needs warm clothes.
He needs Mom. He needs his mom...
-Is Logan okay?
-I don't know, buddy, I don't.
I'm sorry.
Kirsty Bennett
is a criminal psychologist.
When we have a child disappearing,
our first concern is obviously
where is that child
and what's happened to them.
We have to cooperate with the family
who are going to be able to give us
ideas about where Logan might be.
-Has he got a father?
-His biological father's in London.
-Okay.
-I want to see my son.
Calm down, please calm down.
The mother was beside herself
with worry,
and they were having to deal
with that aspect
of trying to reassure her
and calm her down.
-I feel so useless, though.
-I know.
Not knowing what happened,
there was a range of possibilities
about what they were facing.
Like was he was he dead or alive?
Was he in danger
or had he been taken by someone?
These were questions
yet to be answered.
The investigation to find out
what happened to him
was critical in those stages.
This is all my fault.
Less than an hour after Logan
went missing,
police located him
just a few hundred meters
from the family home.
Two police officers were searching
in nearby Pandy Park
along the river Ogmore
when out the corner
of one of the officer's eye, they saw
what looked like a body
floating in the river Ogmore.
At that point,
one of the officers dived in,
got into the river
and retrieved the body.
And it was quite apparent from
the descriptions that this was Logan.
Logan was pronounced dead
at the scene.
Angharad was given
the devastating news.
Where is Logan?
Where is Logan, please?
What happened to him?
The police's initial impressions
about what had happened to Logan
looked like he had wandered
into the river and had drowned.
There was
a lot of unanswered questions
about how he'd come to be
in the river, how he had left.
Police were keeping an open mind.
His body was taken to hospital
and then sent for a post-mortem.
While the family were dealing
with Logan's death,
investigators go to work,
piecing together what happened.
They started with a key piece
of body-worn footage
recorded at the house
when the police first arrived.
I don't know.
Right now, the best thing...
Why is no one telling me
what's going on?
I don't know!
Coral Dando is
a professor of Forensic Psychology.
She used to be a police officer
and understands detective work.
They are very good at what we refer
to as situational awareness.
So they'll walk into a situation
or a context and be very cognizant,
very aware of what's going on.
They don't acknowledge it,
but it will all, you know,
have been taken in.
What we actually see on the camera
is the washing machine going off.
And that's a bit concerning
because if they are asleep
and they've woken up
to find Logan missing,
you wouldn't put
the washing machine on.
Unusual behavior
when your child's missing
and you're absolutely traumatized,
you're grief-stricken,
you're hysterical.
The contents of the machine
raised more questions.
When police looked inside,
there was bedding
that belonged to Logan being washed.
Their story wasn't adding up,
but the police still needed
more evidence.
They spoke to a number of neighbors
to see if they had CCTV cameras
that could be used to see
how Logan had left the house,
whether on his own
or whether there had been
another explanation.
Emi Polito is an expert witness
and video analyst.
Luckily, the police find CCTV footage
of a neighboring property
pointing directly at Logan's bedroom.
Dr Vaslieous Karagianopoulous
is a leading figure
in digital forensics.
There is light turning on
in Logan's room
during the night
on multiple occasions
and it stays on for many minutes.
Angharad told police she went to bed
and slept all night.
This footage suggests that there are
people awake and not asleep in beds.
Someone had been busy.
With the CCTV, they find out
something else is going on.
Two figures were seen leaving
from the back of the house
in the middle of the night.
They were carrying something
and walking up the garden path
in the direction of the river.
At the same time, we can actually see
someone opening the curtains
in Logan's bedroom.
Given that Logan's mom's account
was that she's been asleep all night
and there was no activity
in the property during the night,
clearly, the police
have now information
to suspect that something
more sinister is going on.
Detectives wanted to re-examine
the 999 call made by Angharad.
The CCTV in the daylight
now shows Logan's mom
coming out of the property,
making the 999 call.
-Please, please help me, please!
-Where are you?
My son, I don't know,
he's not here!
There's quite an emotional response
from Logan's mom,
which we would normally anticipate,
but she's not really crying.
-Okay, take a breath...
-Where is he?
The operator was trying
to reassure her,
but she was having none of it.
It's hard to pin her down and get her
to engage with the police.
I know this is terrifying.
I need you to breathe
so I can get the information I need.
It starts to raise suspicions
as to why
she's not giving the information
being asked
when she's so concerned
about her child being missing.
Where does the back gate lead to?
The road.
It leads onto a road as opposed
to a field or anything like that,
does it?
The operator was trying to cope
with the situation,
but it seemed to be
something melodramatic
about the way she was acting
and possibly not quite ringing true.
The time of the day is interesting
because Logan's five years old.
We wouldn't expect him to leave
the house during those hours.
Because of that time,
the house is secure.
It's locked. He wouldn't have access
to leave the property.
That wouldn't immediately raise
suspicions at 5:40 in the morning
that a five-year-old boy
has seemingly wandered
out of the house.
As suspicions grew, the police
had another look at the footage
of John and Craig out searching
for Logan.
Logan!
People go incredibly far
to cover up their crimes.
And search parties are not irregular.
Pretending to look for them.
These can be a package
of that deceptive narrative
you're trying to spin
to convince people
that you're just an innocent parent
who's looking for their loved one.
He's unconscious.
Why is he unconscious?
The footage in the kitchen
became increasingly important.
I don't know!
So when police arrive
at these sorts of situations,
they have to tread a complex path
because they have no idea
whether, on this occasion
Angharad, so Logan's mother,
is telling the truth or whether
she is acting out a trauma response
or a grief response
to the terrible news
that her child is missing.
So they have to be careful.
They want to gather information.
And in order to do that,
they need to just let her talk.
Because at this point, there is
no concept or no understanding
that he's actually dead.
There are elements
about her behavior
on the body-worn camera footage
that are interesting
to psychologists such as myself.
He needs Mom. He needs his mom...
She's screeching, she's howling,
she's saying an awful lot.
-I feel so useless, though.
-I know.
But there are no details,
no real information.
There's nothing that
the police officers could really use
in terms of trying to seek out
where Logan is.
This is all my fault.
Are there any verifiable details?
And there are very few.
But, of course, in a trauma response,
that might well be the case.
So it's really difficult.
She's dropping down to her knees
in a traumatic behavioral way,
which she thinks is how a parent
in her situation should behave.
Why am I not allowed to see
my biological son?
You would expect a mother to be
upset and even quite hysterical.
But this was
sort of something different.
-What is going on?
-Look at me.
Focus, focus, focus.
One minute she was wailing,
crying for her baby.
Next minute, she was aggressive
towards officers.
-Next minute, in denial.
-I want to see my son!
Calm down, please calm down.
People who feel like they're not able
to mask their true emotions enough
or not show the right emotion enough,
you get someone leaning more
and more and more
and almost becoming more theatrical
and more and more obvious,
even though they want the opposite.
Investigators concluded
that the footage of the two figures
leaving the house at 2:43 a.m.
were John and Craig
who carried Logan's body
to the river.
A minute later, in Logan's bedroom,
it was Angharad
who turned the light on and off
and opened the curtains.
It was enough to implicate
all three in Logan's death.
1st August, 2021.
You're under arrest, okay?
-I haven't done anything wrong.
-Okay.
When the police officers
start to arrest her,
she turns from being
grief-stricken, hysterical
to starting to lash out verbally
at the police officer.
How can you think this is me?
How can you even assume
that I have anything to do
with my beautiful child's death
and so on and so forth.
-So we get a switch straightaway.
-What happened to him?
I can't explain anything further.
Why is no one talking to me?
You're supposed to be helping,
not arresting me
-when I'm telling you...
-Okay.
She's pointing. She's shouting.
And this behavior suggests
that she's now in panic mode.
What is wrong with you guys?
You're supposed to be helping me!
Angharad, I understand
you're upset...
Is your son dead?
Has your son been found in a river?
-Angharad!
-Angharad!
What she's now is really cross.
You're very upset.
We'll investigate...
-I'm very upset. I've lost my son!
-She's being quite aggressive.
She realizes that it's all failed.
It's all coming down.
-Don't take my children away.
-It's very self-preservation.
She's very concerned
about what's going to happen to her
and her involvement in it
rather than Logan
and the circumstances
surrounding his murder.
Why am I not allowed
to see my biological son?
One of the really interesting things
that emerges from the footage
is this clear performative grief.
-Angharad, sit by here now. Sit down.
-I haven't done anything wrong!
She listens to what's being said
and then it kicks off
and all starts again.
Angharad couldn't have acted
without John Cole.
I'm arresting you on suspicion
of murder.
-What?
-This police officer here is involved
in the arrest procedure.
He will be talking, watching,
gathering information.
-What?
-John, calm down a second.
-What I'm going to do now...
-I've just found out my son is dead.
He's happy to provide a story
which seems to be well-practiced.
John's 13-year-old stepson, Craig,
was also taken into custody.
I'm arresting you on suspicion of
the murder of Logan Mwangi, alright?
It has come to light...
We have a witness,
saying that you wanted to kill Logan.
He told his foster family that
he wanted to kill Logan
whom he referred
to as the 5-year-old.
There's also further evidence
and information from other witnesses
to speak to you about, okay?
That's why you need to be arrested.
Here we have
body cam footage of Craig,
Angharad's boyfriend's stepson,
being arrested.
He just stands there with his hands
in his pockets.
-He says and does nothing.
-I'm under arrest.
-Just do as you're told, please.
-Angharad.
-You have done nothing wrong.
-I know.
-Get out of my room.
-Hey, come on now.
-I'm not messing.
-The fact that a 13-year-old boy
was capable of taking part
in such a brutal act
was just something
that no one would have expected.
When you're 13 years old,
you don't have the full-sized brain
that you will have later on in life.
You are going to make
worse decisions overall
because you don't have
as much brain.
So holding children who are
that young as responsible as adults
is one of those tricky things.
And in most parts of the world,
we don't.
But we make exceptions
for extreme things like murder.
Kids understand the consequences
of something that extreme.
We can't point to a single difference
between someone
who kills and someone who doesn't.
But we can look at the risk factors.
He had lots of them.
An unstable environment growing up.
Callous, unemotional traits.
He seemed to struggle to adjust
into families
and to be part of the family unit.
He was moved
into another high-risk situation.
There's just a whole series of things
going wrong here for this kid
to mature in a normal, healthy way.
The results of the autopsy on Logan
revealed the extent
of what he endured in his home.
He had suffered 56 injuries.
Among the injuries on Logan's body
was a serious injury to his abdomen,
which had caused a large amount
of blood loss.
There was two brain injuries
caused by blunt-force impact
in the days leading up to his death.
One doctor said that these injuries
were normally seen in people
who had fallen from a great height
or in a high-velocity car crash.
Further research revealed
the fatal injury
was a culmination
to months of suffering.
Logan, unfortunately, has a history
of abuse within the family.
People have come forward who know
the family,
have recounted this abuse.
About a year before Logan's death,
he was taken to hospital by Angharad,
who believed he was suffering
a dislocated shoulder.
In fact, he had fractured one
of his bones and was in severe pain.
Angharad later told police
that she had popped Logan's shoulder
back into place
after he had fallen
and sent him to bed with Calpol.
It was also revealed that a lack of
communication with Social Services
resulted in
a series of missed chances
to protect Logan.
John Cole had
a bit of a checkered past.
He had convictions for petty crime,
robbery and burglary and battery.
Because of Cole's convictions,
Social Services became involved
with Logan.
He had his own social worker
who was looking in on the family.
In the same month that Logan
was murdered,
Social Services made one
of their checks on the family.
When Social Services went to visit
Logan at home in July,
he had contracted COVID,
so he was isolated
and didn't get to see him,
weren't able to visibly check
that he was okay.
They should have had some concern
about how is he,
what's going on with him?
While they described Angharad
as overbearing,
they believed that she loved
her child and cared for him.
At first suspicious of John
and his demeanor,
they came to trust him.
Eventually, Logan's case
was downgraded.
There was no longer a need
for as much monitoring as previously.
Shortly after the visit
from Social Services,
Angharad and John applied
for custody of John's stepson,
Craig.
Like John,
he also had a troubled past.
Craig became involved
with Social Services
after he was assaulted
by his biological mother,
who was then sectioned
under the Mental Health Act.
He had been in a number
of foster families and in care.
Craig had a history
within Social Services
for quite inappropriate,
violent behavior and attitudes
towards his foster carers.
He wanted to play murder games
with his foster sisters.
He had been torturing the family pet.
The carers were quite concerned
about how that behavior
was manifesting.
Playing really violent games
and fantasizing about murder
or talking about murder,
those are the kinds of things
that a 13-year-old
that can be indicative
of conduct disorder,
which is what we call kids
who sometimes go on to become
psychopaths or develop psychopathy.
When you don't really feel
the same emotions,
especially empathy.
Four out of five kids who have
those symptoms will grow out of them
and one out of five won't.
John and Angharad were applying
for full custody of Craig.
Despite Cole's previous convictions
and Craig's complex needs,
he was granted custody of Craig.
Five days later,
Logan was murdered.
John was sentenced to life in prison
with a minimum of 29 years.
Angharad was sentenced to life
in prison with a minimum of 28 years.
More disturbing facts came out
in the trial
about how Logan was treated by
Angharad and John
when he was in their care.
Logan was made to do press-ups
when he was naughty.
John Cole would sit over him
and make sure he completed
a number of exercises
in order to punish him.
He was also denied food
when the family were having KFC.
He was told
he wasn't allowed to have food
and was just given
a bowl of cereal to eat.
Neighbors described seeing Logan
being made to stand outside
with no shoes on as punishment.
At one point,
the social worker discovered
that there was a burn on his neck.
The reason given was
that he'd burnt in on a hot tap.
But Cole later claimed that
Angharad had placed
a hot coffee spoon on his neck.
There wasn't a shred of remorse
between them.
Angharad continued to be self-pitying
and maintained her innocence,
while John Cole pathetically looked
at the floor
and claimed that he had nothing
to do with Logan's death.
Mulligan was sentenced
to life detention
in a young offenders institute
with a minimum of 15 years.
Usually, anonymity is maintained
for children.
There's this assumption that
the things you do in your childhood
are different
than the adult you'll grow into.
You shouldn't have to carry
that baggage forever
because of bad decisions made
with a brain not fully developed
in circumstances
where you were a dependent.
Society's supposed
to be taking care of you.
So your failures are reflecting
on us as a society,
not just on you as the child.
And so the fact that anonymity
is waived is usually
because it's seen as to be so much
in the public interest
and it's balanced
against the rest of the kid
and it's seen as more important that
the society knows who this person is
than it is that the kid is protected,
which is really tricky.
The CCTV footage in this case
was the main evidence
which led to the convictions
of the three murderers.
Without that, we'd never have known
how Logan left the house,
whether he left of his own accord
or the truth of what happened,
that he had been murdered
inside the house
and his body discarded
by his stepfather and stepbrother.
The footage of Angharad's behavior
as well was also crucial.
It showed that this was not a mother
who was scared for her child.
It was someone who was taking part
in a performance
to cover up what had happened.
When news of Logan's death
broke out where he lived
and went to school, the reaction
was one of horror.
The fact that
a young, innocent five-year-old child
had been found dead in the river
was horrifying enough.
That three people had been arrested
on suspicion of his murder
was absolutely horrifying
for the members of the community.
The abuse and the treatment
experienced
in the months leading up to his death
must have been horrific.
He was a young, small, innocent boy
who was being abused
and mistreated
by the people who are meant to love
and protect him
and provide a safe home for him,
and he was given anything but that.
He must have lived
a lonely, painful existence
during that time.
He'll never be forgotten
by the community
as a very sweet, young boy
who just met
the most horrendous end
at the hands of those
who should have cared for him.
Almost every crime now contains
some kind of digital fingerprint.
Particularly for
homicide investigations,
the inclusion of video footage
is considered the gold standard.
Local law enforcement agencies
rely on home security, business
and street cameras
to catch offenders
who would otherwise get away
with it.
Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2017.
Aron Hyman is a journalist
for The Times and Sunday Times
in the Western Cape.
A very typical small student town.
You have these mountains
all around you,
these rolling hills with vineyards.
This perfectly quaint little town.
It was also home
to 21-year-old Hannah Cornelius.
Hannah Cornelius was
a young student
at the University of Stellenbosch.
She was
a wonderful, soft, loving person
to her friends
and everybody that she knew.
Kirsty Bennett
is a criminal psychologist.
Hannah was described
by family and friends
as a very empathetic,
compassionate young woman.
Hannah had many friends,
including Cheslin Marsh.
He was studying theology.
Also just a young, carefree man,
you know, trying to get through
his studies and enjoying...
enjoying life as a young student.
27th May, 6:00 a.m.
A couple woke up to the sound
of someone in distress.
The owners of the house came out
and saw that this young man was
in incredible distress and bleeding.
-It was Cheslin Marsh.
-He had gaping wounds on his head.
He was in a terrible, traumatic
and emotional state.
They called the police.
Cheslin explained that he
and Hannah had been kidnapped
by three men.
Hannah as a student
had a blue VW Golf
that she had inherited
from her grandmother.
He described Hannah's vehicle,
so the blue city Volkswagen,
and he described his four attackers.
Cheslin told them
that Hannah was still missing.
The police already had information
about a young woman.
She was found at 6:30 a.m.
on Saturday
the 27th May,
by workers at a nearby farm.
She had been declared dead
at the scene.
She was found face down
and with severe wounds to her head
and stab wounds
to the back of her neck.
With Cheslin's help, the body
was quickly identified as Hannah.
Cheslin told the police
about the traumatic events
of the night before.
Friday nights in Stellenbosch,
it's bubbly, it's buzzing.
They'd been out dancing.
They'd been playing dominoes.
They'd been out, having a nice time.
Quite early in the morning,
Hannah and Cheslin had left a bar,
got into the car and Hannah offered
to drop Cheslin at his home.
The two of them parked
in a parking lot.
Police looked at CCTV footage
from the night before.
You can clearly see
this Volkswagen hatchback there.
Hannah and Cheslin
are in the vehicle at this point.
Emi Polito is an expert witness
and video analyst.
The four individuals are walking
towards the camera.
We can start identifying them
in the sense
that potentially, we are looking
at four males here.
We can even get to the point
where we can talk a little bit
about the clothing assemble
and what they are wearing.
They appear to come back into view
from a different direction.
You can see the men looking
at the car
while they are walking past it
as though they're scoping it out.
What is it that these guys are doing
at this time in the morning?
You can see the men approach
the car from two directions,
both from the driver's side
where Hannah Cornelius was sitting
and from the passenger side.
The driver seat window
was slightly open.
He thrusts a hand through,
gripping a screwdriver.
And he puts the screwdriver
with the sharp end pointed
at her chest.
Cheslin then tries to grab
the screwdriver,
and at that point,
another assailant gets
into the backseat of the car
and opens a flick knife
and points it at Cheslin.
One of the assailants tells him,
"Quiet or she dies."
I'm seeing random flashes of light
which are suspicious to me
in terms of could this be
some request for help.
Hannah is pleading with them,
telling them,
"Please take whatever you want,
but please let us go."
At that point,
one of the men walks away,
presumably with some
of the stolen goods.
The rest of the three men put Hannah
in between the two front seats.
And Cheslin is in the back seat
with one of the other assailants,
who is armed,
and then they drive off.
The assailants reassured Cheslin
and Hannah
that they just needed their car.
They just want to drive somewhere.
Then they're going to drop them off.
They'll be let go.
Everything will be fine.
The next time we see Hannah
is about seven kilometers
outside of Stellenbosch
on sort of a rural back road
running in between farmland.
It's quite a quiet place.
Cheslin told police that
they stopped at a gas station.
Detectives sourced
the CCTV footage
and found the blue Volkswagen
pulling in at 4:34 a.m.
We see a passenger occupying
the passenger seat.
I think it would be quite reasonable
to assume that this is Hannah.
Between the time
that they left Stellenbosch
and the time they arrived
at the gas station,
the hijackers had taken Cheslin out
of the car and put him in the boot.
One of the hijackers
then gets out of the vehicle,
and at this point,
he's got Cheslin's bank card.
He then walks to the ATM
and he attempts to draw cash
inside a shop at the gas station.
This is
a considerable amount of time
where this person here is attempting
to withdraw money out of the ATM.
I'm seeing
different screens flashing
and fingers doing all sort of things
on that keyboard.
He kind of appears to be leaving
the scene deflated and disappointed.
Cheslin gave the hijackers
the wrong PIN code to his bank card,
presumably to buy time for them.
Or perhaps he just didn't want them
to steal his money.
This CCTV footage
is the last time
that Hannah was captured alive.
It's clear at this point that the men
are becoming more volatile,
more irate.
They are angry and aggressive
with Cheslin.
They take him
to sort of a forested area.
They force him out of the boot
and order him to lay his head down
on a hard surface, on a rock.
Two men come and stand over him
with bricks broken in half.
And at that moment, he closes
his eyes and he prays.
And that's the last thing
he can remember.
When they get back into the vehicle,
Hannah is there with three men
who had taken her.
There's going to be a time
where she realizes
that they don't intend
to let her live
and she is going to die.
The men drove Hannah
into some farmland
where she was sexually assaulted.
When we look at certain crimes,
we may not have had
the specific intention
of committing such awful acts
like rape or murder.
Sometimes we work on
the opportunity that it's available.
We have a victim
that we can offend against.
It's going to be really hard
to decide not to take part
because you run the risk of losing
your position in the gang,
not being trusted by your peers,
so once that decision is made,
you've really got to go
with what everybody else is doing.
From there, they took a large rock
and they put her head on the floor
and they crushed her head
with this rock twice.
Then they stabbed her
in the back of her neck
to make sure that she was dead.
Hannah's body was found
and reported a few hours later,
but the three men
did not stop there.
The men drive around.
They smoke drugs.
They then kidnap another woman
and take her bank card from her,
drive her to a petrol station
and attempt to draw money.
She is in the back of the car
when two of the offenders get out
and they withdraw 3000 Rand
from her account.
They make it look like a normal day,
going into a petrol station,
withdrawing money.
They don't look agitated,
look very calm.
They look like they been doing it
for a long time
and are comfortable with it.
It doesn't look like
they are improvising or panicking.
Just normal business for them.
It shows the lack of remorse
and lack of emotional attachment
or even understanding
what just has happened.
They drop her off and release her
and then drive back
towards Stellenbosch.
Police issued
a "Be On the Look Out"
for the blue Volkswagen
and three men.
A police detective vehicle driving
along a road near Stellenbosch
spots the blue Volkswagen Golf
and starts pursuing it,
leading to a high-speed car chase.
The detectives pursue them
and chase them down a farm road.
These people have got
no intention of stopping.
They don't care about the damage
or the hurt that they leave behind.
They basically reach a dead end,
and the men jump out of the vehicle.
You can see the detectives
chasing two men at that stage.
One of the men
had already been dropped off.
The detectives apprehend both men
as they tried to flee
into the riverbed.
The two men were identified
as Geraldo Parsons
and Vernon Witbooi.
They are taken in for questioning.
The police then find out that
these two men had been to prison.
They have a criminal history,
and they are part
of a prominent South African gang.
The third man was identified
as Eben Van Niekerk.
A fourth man, Nashville Julius,
was also arrested
for taking part
in the initial carjacking.
Vernon and Nashville
gave confessions
because the police
had convinced them
that their friends were talking
and that they had cases against them.
Hannah didn't talk at all.
She just looked out in front of her.
The men are viewing her as an object.
She means nothing to them.
And there's no concern
on their behalf about how she feels,
how she is experiencing that moment
because it's about their own gain
and gratification.
It's October 2018 when the trial
starts in the Cape Town High Court.
Their demeanor in court was stoic.
They would often smirk and laugh.
When Cheslin had to testify,
they tried to intimidate him
in the witness stand.
The four men were not really taking
things very seriously.
They were laughing,
joking among themselves.
We don't really see any remorse
for the various crimes
that they've committed.
For the family, it's horrific to know
that how they treated their daughter
in her last moments was awful.
And they think it's a joke.
The three main perpetrators,
Geraldo Parsons, Eben Van Niekerk
and Vernon Witbooi
were given life sentences.
They will spend 25 years in prison
without the possibility of parole.
Nashville Julius was sentenced
to 15 years.
CCTV footage was crucially important
in this case.
Without it, they might not
have been able to piece together
some of the key details
that basically tied the men
to the crimes.
They might even not have been able
to verify Cheslin's testimony.
Cheslin Marsh was left deaf
in one ear.
One of the only positives
of this story is that
Cheslin miraculously survived
and that he went on to live a life.
He's studying law. He's married.
He's got kids.
It must take incredible strength
for a person
to ever recover
from something like that.
Hannah's family was left
with a lifetime of grief.
Hannah's mother started
the Hannah Cornelius Foundation
in a nearby
underprivileged community,
which helps
with early childhood development
for street kids
and kids that come out
of difficult household situations.
A year later, more tragedy
for Hannah's family
when her mother went for a swim
in the ocean.
She was swept out at sea
and drowned,
but there's also others who suspect
that maybe the psychological toll
was too much for her
and that she might have taken
her own life.
The murder of Hannah Cornelius
had a big impact
on South African society.
Of all the women and especially
young women, children,
being raped
and murdered in South Africa,
Hannah's case was, I think,
particularly shocking
in its brutality.
There were a lot of conversations
about women's rights in South Africa,
about how violent we are
as a society.
About how patriarchal our society is,
how men view women.
I think there was a lot of reflection
from South African society.
I think the courts and police were
sensitized to these sorts of cases.
There was a lot of public outpouring.
I remember
when they were sentenced,
the gallery was full of people
who had just come to watch the case,
and they cried out in joy
but also, I guess, in anger.
The positives is the fact that
we started confronting
as a society the underlying problems
that lead to men going through
the criminal justice system
and coming out of the system
after having served time
for the same crimes
that they would like to commit again.
We still have many lessons to learn
from that because after that,
so many other women were raped
and killed in South Africa.
Translated by: Evelyn Towne
Iyuno