The Oudtshoorn Regional Court in Western Cape, South Africa has sentenced a man, Shaun Romano Keyser to 20 years direct imprisonment after he r@ped and m8rdered an elderly woman.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in a statement on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 said DNA evidence linked him to the gruesome crimes committed against 55-year-old Anna Abrahams.
According to NPA, Keyser claimed that two older co-accused threatened him to keep quiet.
“For 12 years, he walked around the streets of Prince Albert and past the deceased’s house with her family, not knowing that her m8rderer was someone known to them who was homeless,” the statement read.
The State proved its case on circumstantial evidence and called seven witnesses to strengthen and prove it.
Evidence led in court showed that the deceased’s body was found behind Flippie Daler’s house on the evening of 11 February 2012.
Daler sold alcohol in Prince Albert. Post-mortem results revealed that the deceased had been r3ped, and the cause of d3ath was alcohol intoxication. DNA evidence was taken from her body. Police made no arrests in the case.
Twelve years later, police arrested Keyser for an unrelated theft case, and his DNA was taken and sent to the laboratory. The DNA evidence linked him to the deceased’s r@pe and m8rder, and these results set the wheels of justice in motion.
Police arrested him on 19 June 2024 and charged him with the rape and murder. He made a warning statement as well as a confession, where he said that he was 16 years old at the time and claimed that two older co-accused forced him to have s3x with the deceased. He complied with the instruction as they threatened him, but he denied that he k!lled the deceased.
Unhappy with the doctor’s findings on the cause of d3ath after studying the docket, regional court prosecutor Hyron Goulding approached Dr Hurst for a second opinion.
The previous doctor found the cause of death as intoxication because the deceased’s blood alcohol content was very high-it was 0.31 grams per 100 ml.
He sent Dr Hurst two questions: ‘With the high alcohol level, was the deceased able to give legal consent to sex? Dr Hurst wrote a supplementary affidavit wherein she indicated that individuals with blood alcohol levels above 0.31 g per 100ml are very heavily intoxicated and can be stuporous or comatose.
Their mood is apathetic with mental confusion, drowsiness, and disorientation. In that state, nobody can act clearly, and she could not give consent for s3x.
The second question was whether the doctor could establish whether there was evidence that the deceased was murdered or not?
Dr Hurst made a new finding that the deceased had petechial haemorrhage on her heart and lungs, which indicates an asphyxial death.
‘While being sodomised, she would have been forced to face downwards and most likely was unable to breathe as her airways would have been obstructed. I therefore do believe that she was murdered, the perpetrator knowing that she was not in a state to give any resistance or defend herself,” he said.
Insistence on a second opinion helped to strengthen the State’s case, and the accused’s cross-examination also proved that he lied about the events that took place, the other two people he attempted to implicate and that he had different versions of the incident.
Police traced the two individuals he claimed they forced him to have sex with the deceased. DNA results excluded them as only his DNA was found on the deceased’s body. Police had no evidence against the other persons except the word of Keyser, who kept quiet for 12 years.
Goulding argued that the accused had ample time to report the alleged threats and the ‘real culprits’ to the police on several occasions over the past 12 years, but failed to do so.
“This case is a clear example of how science and the law come together in successfully solving crime through DNA evidence. The family of the deceased have prayed all these years that the culprit who k!lled their loved one would be found, and now he has been revealed. This culprit had been staying in the same street as the deceased for all these years, and he kept quiet all along for 12 years. When the State cross-examined him and asked him why he kept quiet, he said he was waiting for the police to come to him,” the NPA stated.
“If it were not for the doctor who gave the new evidence as to the new cause of death, the accused would have gotten away with the m8rder charge because the only evidence on the murder charge was that the cause of d3ath was intoxication, meaning she drank herself to d3ath.
“The State would have been forced to withdraw the murder charge, but fortunately, it worked out well for the state.”
Goulding presented case law and argued for a lengthy sentence of 15 years imprisonment taken as one for the sentence on both counts, pointing out the heinous crime the accused committed and kept quiet for 12 years until he was linked by DNA evidence in 2024 on an unrelated offence.
The court sentenced Keyser to 10 years’ direct imprisonment for rape and 10 years’ direct imprisonment for culpable homicide.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in the Western Cape, Adv. Nicolette Bell once again applauded the investigation and prosecution teams for the sterling work to ensure that this case was not another brutal cold case that goes unsolved.
“The conviction and sentence are a testament to the hard work and never-give-up attitude of the investigation and prosecution team, who ensured justice for the elderly woman and her Prince Albert family,” the statement added.
