UPDATE April 5 2015 - The SAPS are no longer looking for missing German citizen Dietrich Scholtz.
SUMMARY
When he was first reported missing by his realtor in January 2014 - some teeth were found on a stained carpet in his luxury-home. It's not known whether the SAPS ever investigated this fact with DNA-testing of material on the stained carpet, nor whether they ever did any DNA testing on the teeth. His passport and his money-bag were also found inside his home - but he has disappeared without a trace. It's not known if the 'crime scene' has ever been examined for other DNA traces or dusted for finger prints and whether any of this DNA at the crime scene had ever been compared with the DNA-record which the South African Police Service has established after the German disappeared in 2014. The real estate agent also said at the time of his disappearance that his temporary asylum seeker permit had expired in January 2014. “It is a shocking scenario. Everyone who knew him in the community is concerned about his whereabouts. I know he withdrew R300 every week to live on. His bank manager has confirmed there have been no withdrawals lately.”
And nothing has changed since then. The authorities - the German embassy and the South African Police Service - seem very reluctant to get this case properly investigated.
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April 5 2015 By Charmel Payet Eccentric German millionaire Dietrich Scholzs luxurious R2.5 million home in JB Marks (Chelmsford) Road has been invaded by vagrants. Scholz disappeared mysteriously last year. Picture: Sibonelo Ngcobo
Durban -More than a year after an eccentric Durban millionaire went missing, police and concerned neighbours are no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dietrich Scholz, 72, mysteriously disappeared in January last year, leaving behind his ID and passport and millions in the bank.
Vagrants have now invaded his plush R2.5 million home in JB Marks (Chelmsford) Road, making life hell for his neighbours.
Scholz was a common sight in Glenwood, walking the streets, pulling his groceries behind him in a trolley. But since his disappearance last year, no one has seen or heard from him. Not even the German consulate could provide clues as to whether he was living or dead.
Police this week confirmed they were no longer investigating a missing person’s case.
There has been no reported movement on his bank account save for an impostor trying to get his millions transferred to another account last year.
Real estate agent Charmaine Galbraith, who sold Scholz the house, said the search for him had gone quiet.
“I am still searching on my own, making calls in the hope that I will track him down alive and well. I have started phoning state mental institutions. I have a gut feeling he is there and has no way of getting in touch with us.
“I called Fort Napier and although admissions and registry have no record of him I was advised to call back in a week and speak to someone in charge. I have a feeling this could be it,” she said.
Galbraith made it a habit to check up on Scholz regularly.
“Every time I drove past his house I would see him pottering about in the garden. The situation is very strange. His ID and passport were left in the house.”
She sold him his “dream house” after he initially wanted a Glenwood flat for R400 000.
“He said he wanted to spend his last few years in paradise. Although I didn’t think he had two pennies to rub together, I took him to see a number of expensive homes.
“When I took him to the house on Chelmsford Road, he walked around in a daze and said he had found his paradise. When he told me he wanted the house, I didn’t think he could afford it,” said Galbraith.
“I called his banker, who said he easily had the amount of money required to buy the house. He paid cash for the house and moved in, pushing his mattress in a trolley up the road.”
She said it was disheartening to see his paradise ripped apart by vagrants. The damage is not visible from the road, but inside there is evidence that the house has been invaded.
“The back door has been broken and everything inside ransacked. It will take a fortune to restore the house.”
Galbraith said the last contact she had with his banker was last year when someone called in pretending to be Scholz.
“He wanted all the money from the account transferred to another account. The banker asked him to come into the bank. He then contacted me to help identify him, but the man never showed up,” she said.
Bulwer Safety Forum chairwoman Heather Rorick, speaking on behalf of the neighbours, said she had been helping to try to track Scholz but had also hit dead-ends.
“The German consulate confirmed he had family in Germany but wouldn’t offer further assistance. They say they can’t reach his son. We tried to open a case at the Umbilo police station but were unsuccessful. We even went to the mortuary to see if a John Doe matching his description had come in, but they had nothing on record.”
Rorick said it seemed as if Scholz had disappeared.
She said neighbours behind his property had sold because fence-hoppers had been coming on to their property from Scholz’s.
Sunday Independent http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/vagrants-invade-plush-r2-5m-home-1.1841119
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EARLIER REPORT:
http://bereamail.co.za/53581/still-no-sign-of-eccentric-german-millionaire/
MORE than a year after being reported missing, German national, Dietrich Scholz, has still not been found and his upmarket home in JB Marks (Chelmsford) Road remains abandoned and in a serious state of neglect. Police detectives investigating the disappearance of the eccentric millionaire, who was a well-known sight in the area, say they are still working on the case but have uncovered no leads to the whereabouts of Scholz.
Recently, after residents complained about the state of the abandoned property, Berea Mail visited the site only to find clear evidence that vagrants are now occupying the house and property. According to neighbour Darrel Williams, he used to drive past the house every day, and recently noticed the electric fencing on the property had been broken, some windows were open and the curtains could be seen.
“I drove past again and noticed the curtains were gone. There have been people on the property.
If the bank is still paying the electricity, why can’t the fence be put on to keep them out?” he said.
Williams said Scholz’s disappearance was very strange. “The house was secure, someone must have walked in with him,” he said.
Bulwer Community Safety Forum chairperson, Heather Rorick, said the civilian group had noticed the broken fence and missing curtains on its patrols.
“We used to see the curtains half open, then half closed, now they are gone. There is also a half empty bottle of water outside the garage which wasn’t there before.
The wires have been stripped in the garage and bikes which were there before are now gone. We always checked up on the house when doing vehicle patrols,” she said.
Berea Mail, together with Rorick visited the Gale Street Mortuary to enquire if any body, fitting Mr Scholz’s description, had landed up at the morgue.
Body of one white man aged 30 was in the mortuary around time of Scholtz disappearance...
For Scholz’s neighbours, the abandoned and neglected property has come it its own set of problems, least of which is the vagrants who have moved in.
Break-ins have been reported at a number of surrounding properties.
Neighbour got email from German embassy in March, stating he was 'not dead'.
Ursula Martens and her husband, who live in Woodlands Road directly behind Mr Scholz’s house, said vagrants had occupied the property, removed fittings and caused extensive damage to the house.
James Martens, who send an email to the German Embassy to enquire if it had any knowledge of Scholz’s whereabouts, said it had been established that "Mr Scholz was not dead,
simply not at his property, and that he had been in contact with his bank manager as recent as 26 May 2014."
-- However, Martens said his safety, security and well-being was being compromised as a result of the abandonment of the property.
-- Another neighbour has taken it upon himself to maintain the property as it had become overgrown and was affecting the values of adjacent properties.
Charmaine Galbraith, the estate agent who sold Mr Scholz the property, and who initially alerted Berea Mail to his disappearance, explained that
a person had to be declared dead for five years before something could be done about a property.
“Even the next of kin has no right to the house. Nothing can be done to the house as it’s a crime scene.
There are definitely people living there. I’m not sure what the municipality can do.
The German Embassy said it would deal with it, and that there was a son and brother in Germany, but you would think they would come to South Africa out of concern for their relative,”
she said.
There is little Durban municipality '(eKhekwini' in ANC-speak) can legally do regarding the property.
According to the city’s Head of Communications, Tozi Mthethwa property at Chelmsford is privately owned. “The onus lies with the landowner to protect his/her property or surrender it to council should they find it difficult to maintain and/or protect. The municipality therefore, does not have the power to act in the absence of an official letter, preferably endorsed by a court of law, asking for the city to intervene.”
She said the municipality does however make every attempt to track down the owners whether they are in the country or not.
German Embassy is aware of missing Scholz
The German Embassy confirmed that it was aware of the case. Mr Herbert Kuegel said the Embassy’s Honorary Consul in Durban had informed SAPS with regards to Mr Scholz.
“Until now we have not received any feedback but "it could be that the persons who think that Mr Scholz is missing did not file a missing person’s report.
To my knowledge Mr Scholz does not have contact with his family [in Germany],” he said.
Background
The 72-year-old eccentric German man was a familiar sight in Glenwood as he walked the roads pulling a trolley laden with groceries behind him. He went missing in January 2014.
Estate agents Charmane Galbraith and Russel Langley were well acquainted with Scholz and reported him missing after Langley noticed rubbish had been thrown into the garden and it was overgrown. The power had also been turned off. In April the two concerned estate agents went to the property and found it had been ransacked. They found a molar tooth and incisors lying on the floor in one of the rooms . and signs of forced entry. In the main bedroom the pair found dried faeces smeared across Mr Scholz’s mattress. His briefcase, money bag and passport were there, along with three unused urine bags. Galbraith opened a missing person’s case with Umbilo SAPS in May 2014.
http://bereamail.co.za/53581/still-no-sign-of-eccentric-german-millionaire/
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FIRST REPORT:
German 'asylum-seeker' Dietrich Scholz 72 who claimed the #CIA were after him, has been missing since Jan 2014 in Umbilo KZN;
May25'04 By Charmel Payet - Sunday Tribune: KwaZulu-Natal, Durban:
"The only indication of police interest in the disappearance of an eccentric Glenwood (SA media refers to him as a 'millionaire') is the crime-scene tape attached to the front gate.
When he was first reported missing by his realtor in January 2014 - teeth were found on a stained carpet in his luxury-home. His passport and his money-bag were also found inside his home - but he has disappeared without a trace. The German embassy is investigating the disappearance of the 72-year-old German pensioner. He lived on a monthly German pension of about R20,000. His bank manager says there have been no withdrawals from his account since January 2014.
Picture: Bongani Mbatha Sunday Tribune - Durban - The disappearance of eccentric Glenwood millionaire Dietrich Scholz, who was last seen in January, is puzzling not only his neighbours but also the police. German citizen Scholz, 72, has seemingly disappeared without trace and attempts to file a missing person report allegedly have not been taken seriously by the Umbilo police. Captain Thulani Zwane says police are aware of the incident. “We tried to locate the family, but could not find them. The neighbours can assist the police by providing information.”
Scholz’s luxurious JB Marks (Chelmsford) Road home, worth an estimated R2.5 million has been trashed. (#Editor comment: in Germany that would be a very cheap price to pay for a fine home at 200,000 Euros). The suggestion that the man may be a 'millionaire' may be a bit far-fetched), agrants, with a set of house keys, were found living in the garage. Now there are concerns that Scholz, who has no family or relatives in Durban, might be dead.
Real estate agent Charmaine Galbraith, who sold Scholz the house and checked up on him regularly, is flabbergasted by his disappearance.“It is like he has disappeared off the face of the Earth. He was a walking target and it would have been easy for people to take advantage of him. I doubt he is still alive, but I have hope that he is alive and safe somewhere. I have received calls from people claiming to have seen him, although the descriptions don’t match.”After being informed by residents that he was last seen in January, Galbraith tried to open a missing person’s case at the Umbilo police station. “No one is taking this seriously. When I tried to report his disappearance to police, I was asked quite arrogantly if I could smell a (dead) body from the street. When I replied I couldn’t, the officers said ‘well then he can’t be dead’. I was also told I couldn’t file a report because I was not family.”
Galbraith said she met Scholz about two years ago after selling him the house. “He was interested in buying property and after seeing a number of flats said he wanted to spend his last years in paradise. When I took him to the house in Chelmsford Road, he walked around in a daze and called it paradise. He paid cash for it and moved in, pushing a trolley with his mattress in it.” She said he was a harmless old soul and very approachable, although quite strange. “He didn’t speak much about his life, but mentioned that he had a son. He lived alone in Durban. I would check up on him on Sundays and usually found him pottering around in his garden. I got him a cellphone, which he tossed, saying the CIA was after him.” Galbraith has since contacted the German Embassy in Pretoria and sent them all the relevant documents.“They have taken this issue seriously and have been in contact with me, saying they are investigating. They have been in contact with his brother and checked with him to ensure that he did not return to Germany.”
She said Scholz was known in the community and was seen walking with his trolley to the shops.She said she visited the home with a colleague recently, using a key kept by a neighbour. “This beautiful house that he was so proud of and called his paradise was wrecked. There were boxes, clothes and food strewn around. There was faeces on his mattress in his bedroom. WE ALSO FOUND TEETH, A MOLAR AND A FEW INCISORS WITH STAINS ON THE CARPET. HIS PASSPORT AND MONEY BAG WERE STILL THERE.
She said Scholz’s temporary asylum seeker permit expired in January. “It is a shocking scenario. Everyone who knew him in the community is concerned about his whereabouts. I know he withdrew R300 every week to live on. His bank manager has confirmed there have been no withdrawals lately.”
Umbilo Community Policing Forum chairman Ben Madokwe said police "were probably investigating as everyone in Glenwood was talking about the missing man."" Sunday Tribune -
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/kzn-millionaire-missing-for-months-1.1693532#.U4Qrf3aaypo![]()
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