Former Stellenbosch University computer science student, Jacobus Johannes Eksteen, has received a sentence of thirty years for the June 2009 kidnap, rape and murder of fellow student, Erin Van Rensburg, in the Stellenbosch flat she shared with her brother. Eksteen was arrested a day after the 20-year old girl went missing. Erin’s body was later found in a shallow grave in Elandsbaai by investigators.

Van Rensburg disappeared after she was left alone in the flat with Eksteen when her older brother, Byron, and her boyfriend went to write an exam. The brother and sister shared an apartment and Eksteen had been working on Byron’s computer when she disappeared. The case shocked the small community of Stellenbosch for many months after Eksteen’s arrest as more details of the crime leaked out.

Erin Van Rensburg (left) and Jacobus Eksteen (right)

Eksteen received his thirty year sentence today, appearing before Judge President John Hlope at the Western Cape High Court. The proceedings took the form of a plea-bargain, in which all three charges were taken as one for the purposes of sentence. He was refused bail at the outset of his custody in 2009, principally to avoid community outrage should he be released.

[Source: Times LIVE, News 24]