Staff Reporter
FOUR young persons who face charges in relation to the murder of Christof Fredericks, a trans woman who was found murdered with the private parts mutilated in May 2024, appeared in the Katutura Magistrate’s Court on Friday, 20 June, and all four pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them.
Accused one, Naundomba Elias Namwandi, and accused two, Beukes Mervin Lele, who were both 18 years old at the time of the offence, face charges of murder, obstruction of justice, and violating a corpse. Both pleaded not guilty to all counts and put the onus on the State to prove the allegations against them.
Fredericks was discovered with 32 stab wounds and genitalia cut off and placed on the chest, in Windhoek’s peripheral settlement of Otjomuise, 7de Laan, on 2 May 2024, around 07:00 in a riverbed next to the Chairman Mao Zendong High School.
ROBBED OF THEIR LIFE: The deceased Christof Fredericks was gruesomely murdered and mutilated, with the body discovered in a riverbed in Otjomuise by a passerby.
Fredericks, a member of the LGBTQ+ community who identified as a woman, went missing on 1 May 2024, between 10:00 and 11:00 in the morning, in the company of a female friend and never returned home. The last that was heard was that they parted ways with the friend at the Otjomuise shops — until the discovery of Fredericks’ mutilated body the following morning.
Accused three and four in the matter — a 21-year-old man, Joslin Banysen, and Tashiya Nandonita Oliva, a 23-year-old woman — face a charge of obstructing the course of justice in that they allegedly destroyed evidence and tried to conceal the identities of the two teens accused of the murder of Fredericks. Both also pleaded not guilty.
The matter was postponed to September 2025 for the Prosecutor General’s decision on the case.
