The Shallow Grave and other true crime stories from the files of Christian Botha, by Chip Michie, published by Zebra Press, 2005
Christian Botha of East London is one of South Africa’s foremost private investigators. This book is about some of his high profile cases, solved over a career of more than 20 years. Former Star journalist Cheryllyn “Chip” Michie wrote the book.
Last year, Ken Downey was finally sentenced to life in jail for murdering Alec Steenkamp (34) nine years ago, and it was thanks to Botha's involvement. The dead man's family felt that the South African Police Services failed in solving this crime, so they called in Botha. Steenkamp's widow showed them how the evidence pointed towards Downey, but they told her Alec had probably fled overseas or abandoned his family. Steenkamp's widow had even obtained Downey's cell phone records. Eventually the family heard that the docket was lost. Steenkamp's daughter, Samantha, went to work in Afghanistan, to help raise money for a private investigator. Christian Botha took 2 weeks to solve the case, presenting the results to the police after leading them to the body in Putney Road, Brixton, which finally forced them to act last year.
Gideon de Villiers' son, Deon, was murdered at Boksburg Lake in March 2004. Eight days after the murder, de Villiers phoned the police to ask why a bloodied jacket and a blood-covered rock were still lying at the scene of the crime. He was told the police were very busy. De Villiers employed two private investigators but R50 000 later, there was no closure. He called Botha and within months, two suspects were found and charged with murder.
Christian Botha (36) wanted to be a policeman since childhood when he played cops and robbers in Umtata. His childhood hero was Mike Hammer, a private investigator. The day after obtaining his Matric, he applied at the nearest police station but was turned down. He went of to do his military service. Later he spent 16 years as a police reservist (volunteer).
At the age of 19, he solved his first case. He was working as a security guard for Sun International when he came across a money laundering scheme by the casinos. Six people were arrested and a crime syndicate was convicted. After that, Botha took whatever courses he could find to develop his skills. In 1994 he resigned and went to the UK where he worked on farms to earn money to travel through Europe. Afterwards, he found work as a night security guard at the exclusive Chelsea Harbour complex in London. During the day, he took courses at the Streetwise School of Private Investigators. Eventually he returned to South Africa. After working for a tracing company in Johannesburg which didn't do well, Botha moved back to East London with his family and all their possessions in a small Fiat. His five sisters tried to persuade him to get a proper job, but he got on the Internet and came across Samantha Steenkamp and offered to help her.
Botha is married to Andrea and they have three children. He works from home and Andrea handles the admin side of the business. His best informers are prostitutes, street children, domestic helpers, and lonely old folks. Sometimes he receives death threats. A hired hit man followed him, hired by a woman that Botha had exposed as a criminal. He hopes that sales of his book will help build a pension fund for later years.
