Africa-Press – South-Africa. A tiny trace of DNA linked a glove found where Ukrainian businessman Ivan Ivanov was stabbed to death at the East Fort trail on Cape Town’s Chapman’s Peak, and a pair of trousers allegedly belonging to one of the accused, the Western Cape High Court heard on Wednesday.
Although the yield of epithelial cells probably left behind during high-friction contact was minuscule, it was enough to link it to DNA found on the pants.
Ivanov was stabbed to death and robbed on 27 July 2019.
His death again raised the alarm over hiker safety amid sporadic brutal attacks on walkers out in the open; their guard dropped as they admired the rocky outcrops, rare plant species and sweeping sea views offered by one of the seven wonders of the world.
Sinaye Mposelwa was arrested almost immediately by a local security company while running off the mountain and down the road carrying a rucksack.
He confessed, and on Monday pleaded guilty to murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Mposelwa explained that he was at the East Fort hiking trail with other men to rob whoever came past them. They had knives and would use them on anyone who resisted.
He said Ivanov tried to fight them off when they robbed him, so they stabbed him.
The remaining accused Matthew Giyo and Franklin Isaacs remain on trial because they pleaded not guilty.
On Wednesday, police forensics analyst and geneticist Clarissa Muthukarapan said the DNA was copied, quantified, fragments separated and evidence converted to data on machines which are up to date with their servicing and maintenance.
So, she could say that statistically there is a chance that the DNA found in traces of skin cells on the glove is the same DNA found on the pants.
The two accused have not disputed the DNA results themselves, but proceedings ended on a cliffhanger on Wednesday when Prosecutor Thamsanqa Kwetane’s next witness, who may have added the next link in the evidence chain and contextualised this conclusion, was ill.
The trial was postponed to 14 August, and Gwiyo and Isaacs were sent back to prison holding cells.
Originally from Odessa, Ukraine, and a resident of Switzerland, Ivanov was in South Africa to train agricultural wheat product inspectors.
On his rest day, he packed a rucksack with items covering almost any hiking-related emergency.
Just before he made his way up the picturesque path, a Hout Bay couple had abandoned their walk with their dog when three men kept passing them, then doubling back and passing them again.
The last straw was when they saw the men hiding in a bush as they were approaching.
The woman put out an alert on the neighbourhood safety app Buzzer, and her husband called a local security company to warn the community.
They were just driving away from the parking lot when the three suspicious men came sprinting down the mountain, one with a rucksack he had not carried earlier.
Ivanov had barely walked 20m before he was ambushed, stabbed in the head, chest and back, and robbed.
In spite of the fast reaction times, aided by Mposelwa’s on-the-spot confession, Ivanov was dead by the time help got to him.
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