Key Points
- The total 55 legal counts facing Zaheera Boomgaard range from three counts of murder to other offenses.
- The evidence shows two falsified wills along with other circumstantial evidence that prove her connection to these homicides.
- A decision will be given to the court on May 9.
Zaheera Boomgaard who turned 63 has received 55 criminal counts which include murder in three separate cases. She killed three people including a will forging incident where she made herself the principal recipient. The court has charged her with robbery alongside charge of fraud.
Gauteng woman charged, murder victims and forged wills
Through evidence presented at the Pretoria High Court prosecutors established a link between the murders and Zaheera Boomgaard using two burnt body discoveries and one unidentified person who has remained missing permanently. Jamnadas Harkant Nathvani, 71-year-old British citizen, Lynette Mustapha and John Naisby comprise the group of murdered victims.
Authorities last sighted Nathvani in February 2020 when he departed from Johannesburg to Newcastle. Law enforcement discovered the remains of Gauteng during March 2020 after they thoroughly burned him beyond recognition showing evidence of strangulation and blunt force trauma.
A matching fingerprint analysis proved conclusively that Mustapha who was killed with her body burned in Walkerville was the victim. The police have not located Naisby after he disappeared from visiting Boomgaard in 2012.
Evidence against Boomgaard
During the trial Prosecutor Andre Wilsenach established common denominators in the investigations of Nathvani and Naisby.
The victims who stayed at Boomgaard’s place disappeared after visiting her and their bank cards vanished followed by proof of Boomgaard spending their funds.
The police seized two fraudulent wills while searching Boomgaard’s residence which contained Mustapha’s signature and Marlene’s signature. Both documents left everything to Boomgaard as the exclusive inheritor. Boomgaard declared she had no knowledge about the documents being forged.
Circumstantial evidence
Tyre track analysis proved that Boomgaard’s vehicle traveled to the place where Nathvani’s remains were located and SANRAL gantries recorded her vehicle nearby the crime scene. Although Nathvani’s bank cards fell into criminal hands these cards were later activated to make spending and withdrawal transactions.
Police officials discovered Nathvani’s bank card together with her mobile phone inside Boomgaard’s residence.
The prosecution claimed that the hospital message which appeared on Nathvani’s phone from Mustapha’s SIM card under your control was part of your efforts to protect your crimes.
The court case against Boomgaard, the Gauteng woman charged for murder continues into its judgment phase which has been scheduled for May 9 without her admitting involvement in the killings.
