South African killer Louis van Schoor dies as victims still demand justice

Louis van Schoor, a convicted South African serial killer known as the “Apartheid Killer,” has died.

The 72-year-old had been hospitalised with an infection in his leg. His daughter told the BBC he died on Thursday afternoon “due to complications from sepsis”.

Van Schoor’s death comes less than a week after a BBC investigation into his past revealed horrifying new details about a series of murders he carried out in the late 1980s during the final years of white minority rule.

The sister of one of the victims told the BBC she hoped police would reopen the case to investigate despite his death.

At a time when the apartheid regime imposed a strict caste system that favored white South Africans, Van Schoor was working as a private security guard in the coastal city of East London.

Between 1986 and 1989, he shot and killed at least 39 people. All of the victims were black, and the youngest victim was just 12 years old.

In 1991, Van Schoor was arrested and later convicted of seven counts of murder, but he was pardoned after serving only 12 years in prison.

At least 32 of his murders are still classified by police as “justifiable homicide”.

While alive, Van Schoor claimed that all of his victims were criminals he caught red-handed.

He relied on apartheid-era laws that allowed people to use deadly force against intruders to protect their innocence.

But the BBC report raises serious questions about these so-called “justifiable” shootings.

The document includes extensive interviews with Van Schoor, in which he describes his activities as “exciting” and “predatory”, and he makes a series of allegations about police involvement in his activities during the 1980s.

The BBC also reviewed long-forgotten archives, including testimony from several surviving witnesses to Van Schoor’s shootings, who recounted how he gunned them down after they surrendered.

“He picked me up, propped me up against the table and shot me again,” said one survivor, who was 14 at the time.

There is no statute of limitations for murder in South Africa and many victims’ relatives still hope to pursue criminal or civil proceedings to seek justice.

Marlene Mvumbi, whose brother Edward was killed by Van Schoor in 1986, was shocked to hear of her brother’s sudden death.

“He got away with it!” she said. “I hope they keep reopening these cases. The families deserve justice. We got nothing and the pain is still the same.”

In 2021, Van Schoor had to have both legs partially amputated due to circulatory complications.

His admission a month ago, to the same East London hospital where many of his victims were taken, was due to an infection in the remains of a limb.

Sepsis develops when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection and begins attacking its own tissues and organs.

Van Schoor’s family said his condition rapidly deteriorated as he developed sepsis, despite the efforts of hospital staff.

In his final interview with the BBC, Van Schoor denied being a “serial killer”, but also said he had “no regrets” and “no guilt” about his past actions.

Isa Jacobson, a journalist and filmmaker who spent 20 years investigating his case, said it was important that apartheid-era killers continue to be held to account – before it is too late.

“I think we only know a fraction of the murders that happen in this country,” she said.

“Those who keep the truth in their minds are dying… The longer we wait, the harder it will be for the truth to come out.”