Three life sentences for the man who stalked Mietjie Bloubees through Keimoes and left her body in the Orange River
Whitney Snyders, 30, was sentenced in the Upington High Court for the murder and rape of the 23-year-old, a case built by a Keimoes detective who followed every lead.
A 30-year-old man from Keimoes has been given three life sentences for the murder and rape of Mietjie Bloubees, the 23-year-old woman he followed, assaulted and killed in October last year.
Whitney Snyders was sentenced in the Upington High Court on Friday, 06 November 2026, the South African Police Service said in a statement. He was convicted of murder, two counts of rape and defeating the ends of justice.
According to the police account, the crime began on 13 October 2025 while Bloubees and a friend were shopping for groceries in Keimoes. Snyders allegedly stalked the two women during the shopping and followed them to the friend’s residence afterwards.
At the house he called Bloubees outside, slapped and assaulted her repeatedly, and then took her against her will to nearby vineyards. There, police say, he carried on assaulting her before raping her and strangling her with a steel wire. She died at the scene.
He then tried to hide what he had done, placing her body beneath trees with part of it extending into the Orange River, according to the statement.
The case was assigned to Detective Warrant Officer William Mouers of the Keimoes Detective Services in the ZF Mgcawu District. SAPS credits his investigation, and his persistence in following up every lead, with gathering the evidence that secured the conviction. He was assisted on the day the incident was reported by Warrant Officers Schalk Obeholoster and Carl Isaks of the Keimoes SAPS Visible Policing unit.
After his arrest, Snyders pointed out the scene where he had concealed Bloubees’s body.
The sentences handed down were life imprisonment for murder, life imprisonment on each of the two rape counts, and two years for defeating the ends of justice. Snyders was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
The Northern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola, welcomed the conviction and sentencing. She commended Mouers for his professionalism and commitment, and acknowledged the role of the first responding officers, noting the importance of cooperation between frontline police and detectives in getting cases through the courts.
The SAPS statement frames the outcome as part of its stated commitment to intensifying efforts against gender-based violence and femicide, and says the sentences should signal that violence against women will not be tolerated and that perpetrators will be held accountable.
This account is drawn from the SAPS media statement on the case, available at https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=72286, rather than from the court record itself. Enquiries on the statement are directed to Lieutenant Colonel Thabo Litabe of the South African Police Service.
