OUDTSHOORN – A 12-year-old murder case that had gone cold has finally been solved thanks to DNA evidence, resulting in a 20-year prison sentence for the man who raped and killed 55-year-old Anna Abrahams in Prince Albert.
Shaun Romano Keyser was sent to prison by the Oudtshoorn Regional Court this week after DNA analysis conclusively linked him to the 2012 murder. For over a decade, Keyser had walked freely through the streets of Prince Albert, regularly passing the victim’s family home while they remained unaware that their loved one’s killer was someone they knew from their community.
The breakthrough came in June 2024 when Keyser was arrested for an unrelated theft case. Police took his DNA sample as part of standard procedure and sent it to the laboratory for analysis. When the results came back, they matched DNA evidence collected from Abrahams’ body twelve years earlier, finally setting the wheels of justice in motion.
Anna Abrahams’ body was discovered behind a house on the evening of 11 February 2012. Post-mortem results revealed she had been sexually assaulted, and the cause of death was determined to be alcohol intoxication due to her blood alcohol content of 0.31 grams per 100ml. Despite DNA evidence being collected at the time, police made no arrests in the case.
When confronted with the DNA evidence in 2024, Keyser confessed. He however claimed he was only 16 at the time and alleged that two older accomplices had forced him to assault the victim under duress. However, he denied killing Abrahams.
Regional court prosecutor Hyron Goulding was instrumental in strengthening the case by seeking a second medical opinion from Dr Mariette Hurst. The prosecutor posed two critical questions: whether the deceased could have given legal consent to sex with such a high blood alcohol level, and whether there was evidence of murder beyond the initial intoxication finding.
Hurst’s supplementary analysis proved pivotal to the case. She determined that individuals with blood alcohol levels above 0.31 grams per 100ml are heavily intoxicated and can be stuporous or comatose, making legal consent impossible. More significantly, she discovered petechial haemorrhage on the victim’s heart and lungs, indicating death by asphyxiation rather than simple intoxication.
“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,” Dr Hurst stated in her affidavit. “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.”
The DNA evidence also demolished Keyser’s defense strategy. Police traced the two individuals he claimed had forced him to commit the assault, but DNA testing excluded both men. Only Keyser’s genetic material was found on the victim’s body, directly contradicting his multiple, changing versions of events.
During cross-examination, prosecutors challenged Keyser’s claim that he had remained silent for twelve years due to threats from accomplices. Goulding argued that the accused had numerous opportunities to report the alleged threats and identify the “real culprits” to police over the past decade but failed to do so.
When asked why he had kept quiet for so long, Keyser told the court he “was waiting for the police to come to him.”
