The 28-year-old Kyle Ruiters pleaded guilty to killing and dismembering the body of his Bellville neighbour in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday 10 May.
On 21 August 2019, Ruiters stabbed to death 32-year-old Lynette Volschenk, who lived upstairs from him at Seesig Flats, in Loevenstein, Bellville.
Ruiters was convicted on charges of premeditated murder, violating a corpse, and attempting to defeat the administration of justice.
Court refers Seesig killer Kyle Ruiters for psychiatric observation
On Wednesday 10 May, the court granted the State’s application for Ruiters to be held at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital for a 30-day period of observation.
“This is after an initial report from the same institution declared that he has ‘definite psychopathic traits’,” said National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.
Chilling details of a brutal murder, body parts and bloodied walls
In his plea statement, Ruiters recounted the chilling details of the heinous crime.
According to Ntabazalila, he confessed to being a drug addict who racked up a debt of R30 000 with his dealer. Ruiters hatched a plan to kill and rob someone of their valuable items which he could then sell to settle his debt.
- On the afternoon of 21 August 2019, Ruiters watched Volschenk walk to her flat above his own, waited for her as she opened her flat, and followed her inside.
- He grabbed a knife that was on the counter and stabbed her several times in the neck and body.
- She screamed, resisted the attack, and sustained defensive wounds on her hands and upper forearms as a result.
- She stopped moving and he realised that she was dead.
- Ruiters used a hand-held saw he found in the flat to dismember her body in order to dispose of it.
“He dragged the body to various parts of the flat as he carried out the gruesome task,” Ntabazalila said.
- He cut up Volschenk’s body into nine parts before disposing of some of it in the bushes along Jip de Jager Drive, in Bellville.
- He wrapped her severed head in a plastic bag and dumped it in the bushes next to Bates Drive about 400m from the apartment block.
- When she failed to arrive at work at an engineering company, some colleagues decided to check up on her. They found Ruiters cleaning the blood-smeared passage wall near her front door.
- He was arrested in Volschenk’s flat and police later also discovered parts of her body in the flat he shared with his aunt on the ninth floor of the apartment building
- Netwerk24 reported they found some of her personal belongings which included a cupcake pan, a green scale, some keys from her flat, two medicine bottles, a cooler box, a pink towel and hooded top.
- It is believed that Ruiters used the cooler box to carry some of Volschenk’s body parts to his flat where the police also discovered counterfeit R100 notes with only one side printed.
Fascination with serial killers
In the earlier psychiatric report which followed an order of the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on 1 December 2022, Ruiters shared his fascination with serial killers such as Ted Bundy.
He told psychiatrists that he researched the topic extensively and was most fascinated with the Zodiac Killer, who has never been caught.
Ruiters also admitted that he researched the dismemberment of bodies and studied the movements of various possible victims, which included Volschenk.
Declare De Ruiters a ‘dangerous criminal’
“The prosecutor, deputy director advocate Louise Friester, says the court must, after receiving the report, be satisfied that Ruiters represents a danger to the physical or mental well-being of other persons and that the community must be protected against him before imposing an appropriate sentence,” Ntabazalila added.
“Once he is declared a dangerous criminal, he will spend an indefinite period in prison with his condition assessed after a period to determine his state of mind and whether he is still a danger to society.”
Judge Robert Henney postponed the matter to 9 June. Ruiters will be detained in prison until a place is available at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital.
