The week leading up to the 22 December 2006, saw a lot of strange developments in regards to the case.

Firstly it was reported that an unnamed relative of Taliep had gone into hiding, following a sworn police statement implicating several people close to the family. The police said that they did not know the whereabouts of this particular person.

Police also revealed that Taliep’s diary had mysteriously gone missing from his Athlone home. They believed that it contained a key piece of evidence relating to the murder. One can only wonder why they didn’t take it for safe keeping at an earlier time!

It was also revealed that the Dirks family had decided against signing or giving any further statements to the police. This followed the gruelling two day questioning of Najwa and her son Achmat.

Police also said that they had found a red Toyota bakkie which had possibly been used as the getaway car. They had found the vehicle in Bellville and taken it to Stikland’s police yard for forensic examinations.

As the week unfolded and more details of the attack emerged, it became clear that the killing of Taliep was a well-planned and organised hit - and the initial appearance of a robbery was intended to throw police off the killers’ trail.

Four days after the murder, police spokesperson Billy Jones said that provincial detectives from Bellville had been assigned to the case.

This brought the number of detectives working on the case to over 12. It had become clear that the police were taking this murder very seriously. They had many leads to cover and different aspects to investigate.

The Top Cop

At this time, a top police investigator, Superintendent Piet Viljoen had taken over the investigation. Viljoen was a 43 year old, well respected, specialist detective who had won the pestigious ‘Detective of the Year’ award several times.

He had been one of the top investigators in the now defunct ‘murder and robbery unit’ and was now the head of the provincial organised crime unit. Among his many cases, he had worked on the Jurgen Harksen fraud case, the Vito Palazzolo case and the 2004 murder of Dutch student Marleen Konings.
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By the 19 December, the police had already had some good leads into the case. They had put together a crack task force to find the killers and bring them to justice.

Police started saying that the murder had taken months of meticulous planning an a year long plot had been uncovered. The plot may have been hatched soon after he was stabbed in the neck by a close relative in June.

Naasief Groenmeyer, Petersen’s brother-in-law agreed, saying: “My opinion is that this was a well-orchestrated hit.”

He said that when Talliep had returned from London, he had noticed that the surveillance cameras outside the house were not working.

“He didn’t get a chance to repair them because he had to rehearse for a show on Friday. On Saturday he spent the day with family. I think it means the killers knew Taliep’s schedule,” said Groenmeyer.

He also thought the killers had known Petersen’s domestic worker did not work at weekends.

“She always answers the door on weekdays but would never let anyone through unless they convinced her via the intercom and monitor that the family knew them well. She wouldn’t have let them in after 9pm,” he said. This led Groenmeyer to believe Petersen had known his killers.

“The monitor showing who was at the gate wasn’t working but the intercom system was. Taliep must’ve recognised the voices and buzzed them in. This means he pushed a button which opened a gate that leads to the front door. Taliep also had a habit of waiting with the door open to receive his guests,” he said.
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