Young Man Describes ’Screaming’ Woman In Chilling Account On The Night Of Horrific Santa Venera Murder
A court has heard the chilling testimony of a young man who may have witnessed the horrific murder of a young Dutch woman in Santa Venera last August.
The Times of Malta reported that the young man described how, at 2:30am while smoking a cigarette on the balcony., he heard a female voice shouting in the darkness.
“I just heard shouting. It was a woman like a sort of possessed. No words. It was screaming… subsiding slowly until it was replaced by a gurgling sound.”
The young man is the son of the landlady who had rented out her apartment to 22-year-old Dutchman Jelle Rijpma, the man charged with murdering Shannon Mak.
“[I heard] no words. It was screaming and I cannot explain it,” he said when asked to elaborate.
“I’ve got no idea how long but it went on for some time… It seemed to be coming from behind. There was a sort of echo because of the close proximity of the buildings across the street,” he continued adding that he did not hear the voice of another person.
“It continued for some time, getting lower slowly until it stopped. It was not on and off. Then there was like a gurgling sound. Like bubbles.”
A resident who was living on Triq il-Mastrudaxxi also testified his harrowing experience of discovering the victim by a car at 6:30 am that morning.
“There’s a dead woman lying next to your car,” one neighbour had told him.
“I was in shock, I saw her clearly. She had smudged make-up, blood, her legs fully exposed since her skirt was pulled up. It was as though someone had left her there on the road.”
The witness then explained how she told inquiring magistrates about the location of CCTV cameras in the surrounding area.
Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Robert Vella prosecuted. Lawyer Leontine Calleja was defence counsel.
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