EXCERPT: The Most Evil of Them All

PATHOLOGICAL NARCISSISM IN ITS PRIME

There are many cases, each as calculating and manipulative as the next. 

Neither deranged, nor excused by the affliction of severe mental illness; neither forced to live on the edges of society, nor products of unhappy homes and childhoods, these individuals are privileged, with loving families and every opportunity afforded them, yet they want more. And believe that they are entitled to more, to just take for themselves what they need and want, oblivious to the trauma and suffering they leave in their wake …. 

THE BABY KILLER Cape Town, South Africa, 2005 

In 2007, Dina Rodrigues was sentenced to life in prison for masterminding the murder of six-month-old Jordan-Leigh Norton in June 2005, at the infant’s home in Cape Town. During her trial, Rodrigues described her infatuation with her then boyfriend and the baby’s biological father, Neil Wilson. 

Some months into their relationship, Wilson had revealed to Rodrigues that he had a child from a previous relationship. Rodrigues claimed that she was so in love with Wilson that the idea of him having contact with the baby’s mother, Natasha Norton, let alone the child, was just too overwhelming. 

Rodrigues had believed they were destined to be married; she could not imagine life without him. But this all changed when she heard of the existence of Wilson’s illegitimate child. The baby, she thought, would only be a distraction in their lives. Rodrigues became consumed with an obsession to get rid of the infant. 

Baby Jordan was murdered when four men broke into the Norton family home in Cape Town on 15 June 2005. Rodrigues had hired the four amateurs for R10 000 after randomly approaching one of them at a taxi rank in Killarney Gardens. 

On arriving at the taxi rank, she had begun “asking around for a killer the way one might ask for directions to the post office”. (Farber: Blood on Her Hands.)

On Tuesday 14 June 2005, Dina sat at work while the killers attempted and failed to gain access to the Norton home with their telephone directories. She immediately actioned Plan B. 

The following day, Wednesday 15 June, the four men went back to the Norton house. They reportedly approached the home pretending to be from a courier company delivering a parcel. After tying up the baby’s uncle and nanny, the intruders stole a few items and then proceeded to stab baby Jordan savagely and fatally in the neck. 

A few hours later, after the bloodied body of the child had been identified by her devastated mother and grandfather at the mortuary, in a despicable display of sadistic, narcissistic behaviour, Dina messaged Jordan’s mother, Natasha: “Sorry to hear about your baby. You and your family are in my prayers.” (Farber: Blood on Her Hands.) 

During her trial, try as she might, Rodrigues was unable to deny her role as instigator in the callous murder of Jordan. She showed no remorse for the infant’s death or pity for the baby’s mother, only for herself and how she would now have to face prison. 

At first, she tried to deny that she had wanted the baby killed; it was an attempted abduction that had gone horribly wrong. Perhaps Wilson’s devastation at his baby daughter’s death made Rodrigues realise that what she had done was unforgivable. Even so, she appeared confident that the state prosecution would be unable to prove malicious intent. 

A local newspaper report transcribed her words: “No evidence whatsoever had been presented to show that I desired, had a motive for, contemplated, planned, conspired with anyone, or intended to murder Jordan.” 

Yet, later in the trial, after evidence provided by her accomplices proved beyond doubt that Rodrigues had not only hatched the evil plan but had also paid cash to have the infant killed, she realised she was cornered and changed tack … Rodrigues stated that she was only twenty-four at the time of the murder and was “very immature” for her age, having lived a sheltered family life with little experience of men.

Raised in a Catholic family of Portuguese descent on the “right side of the tracks” in the suburbs of Cape Town, she was the laatlammetjie (late arrival) of her family and had always been indulged by her elderly parents and two older brothers as she grew up. (Farber: Blood on Her Hands.) Rodrigues also felt that she should not be punished for the intensity of the emotions she had felt for Wilson, and that these had blindsided her into wanting his child out of the way. She claimed she was emotionally unstable at the time. 

For Dina, however, baby Jordan could not be viewed as a human being — a new and vulnerable one at that. To her, she was nothing more than a hurdle in the way of her quest to be Neil’s everything. (Farber: Blood on Her Hands.) During her trial, Rodrigues did not appear as dismayed or as remorseful as one might imagine; rather, she sought ways to evade conviction and fabricated excuses to literally “get away with murder”. 

She reportedly stated: “It was believed that the evidence of the State did not provide the basis for a verdict more serious than a finding that I instructed my co-accused to ‘interfere’ with the child in some or other way. I did not believe it could be proved by the State that I intended my accomplices to harm her physically. If my co-accused did not give evidence, I believed, the State would not be able to prove more than that I intended my accomplices only (for instance) to abduct the child.” 

Rodrigues was convicted of the murder in May 2007 along with her four accomplices, Sipho Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobotyane, Zanethemba Gwada and Bonginkosi Sigenu. She claimed that she was “surprised” that she had been convicted and that she felt she was entitled to a much lighter sentence than life in prison. 

She appealed her conviction, claiming that she was ill advised by her lawyers and deserved a new sentencing: “I am also now aware that, if a psychologist or similar expert had given evidence concerning my immaturity and the uncontrollable emotions which I had experienced before the murder in a pre-sentencing report, I might well have received a less harsh sentence.” 

THE PROPERTY DEVELOPER Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2016

Multimillionaire property businessman Jason Rohde murdered his wife, Susan Rohde, on 24 July 2016 while attending a company conference at a luxury wine estate in Stellenbosch. 

Susan Rohde was found hanging from a door hook inside a locked bathroom in their hotel room with an electrical cord around her neck. At first, it appeared that she had been strangled by the cord in an apparent suicide. 

What transpired, however, was a weak attempt by her husband to hide the real cause of her death. Rohde claimed that his wife had committed suicide after they’d had an explosive argument about his extramarital affair, something he was not proud of and believed was irrelevant to the case, but which was nonetheless the reason for her “emotional volatility” and, ultimately, her “suicide”. 

Unfortunately for Rohde, his attempt at feigning innocence was short-lived and he became murder suspect number one. The court would eventually find him guilty of murder and defeating the ends of justice (for rearranging the crime scene to disguise his crime). 

Rohde claimed that his marriage was in shambles after Susan had discovered his affair in early 2016. He explained that his wife had become increasingly angry and irrational: “Susan’s conduct vacillated between anger, resentment, desperation and sadness. Her exponential deterioration and her inability to reason or to conduct herself rationally ultimately led to her suicide.”

But Rohde could not explain or justify to the court why he had not considered a divorce, or why his wife’s personal psychologist stated that Susan had not been suicidal at all. In fact, she was considered a strong, independent woman who would never willingly have left her three children without a mother. 

Rohde’s manipulation of his wife’s emotions did not end with her death. During his trial, he explained to the court that after Susan had found out about his extramarital affair, she had become increasingly suspicious and emotionally unstable. She had insisted on attending his company’s business function because she knew his mistress would also be there and she needed confirmation. 

On the evening before her “suicide”, Rohde stated that he and his wife had had a terrible argument, but he had not killed her. In fact, he claimed that just before they had gone to bed, Susan had gone into the bathroom and he had fallen asleep. He only realised something was wrong when he woke up the following morning and could not open the bathroom door. A hotel maintenance employee was called to open the door, which was when they discovered Susan hanging by the electrical cord. Unbelievably, Rohde had slept through his wife’s “suicide”.

The judge concluded that the only words of truth Rohde spoke were the details surrounding the argument he claimed to have had with his wife the night before her death; everything thereafter was a lie. The couple’s argument had spiralled out of control and ended with Rohde strangling his wife with his bare hands. 

He then dressed her lifeless body in a dressing gown (which he’d failed to notice was inside out and later became a damaging piece of evidence), placed the cord around her neck and hung her body from the hook on the bathroom door. 

The hotel maintenance man confirmed that the cord around the victim’s neck was loosely tied, making it an unlikely cause of death. Autopsy results confirmed that Susan had not committed suicide but had died by manual strangulation. The presiding judge stated that there were several discrepancies in Rohde’s testimony and that his account of events on the night in question was too precise to be compelling. 

Almost four years after the guilty verdict, Rohde still maintained that he hadn’t murdered his wife. He made numerous unashamed appeals to have his sentence reduced. One particularly bold and brazen appeal, according to his defence team, declared: “He did not kill his wife but IF he had it was an accident.”

On his final attempt to overturn his conviction, in October 2021, Jason Rohde lost his appeal in the South African Supreme Court of Appeal; however, the court did reduce his sentence from twenty years to fifteen, which is the prescribed minimum for murder. It also reduced his five-year jail sentence for defeating the ends of justice to three years. (Rohde’s application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court was refused in December 2021.) 

Most Evil of Them All by Sam Human is published by Penguin Random House and retails for R300.