Rehoboth strangler Henry Murphy guilty of ex-girlfriend's murder

A woman who was found strangled in her locked bedroom in the Rehoboth area in February 2023 was murdered by her former boyfriend after she rebuffed a sexual advance from him, a High Court judge concluded in a judgement delivered on Tuesday.

“The evidence is overwhelming against the accused,” judge Dinnah Usiku said in the judgement in which she found Henry Murphy (46) guilty on a charge of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, and a count of obstructing the course of justice.

Murphy was accused of murdering a Rehoboth district resident, Christiana Beukes (36), at Bahnhof, situated east of Rehoboth, during the night of 3 to 4 March 2023.

He was also accused of trying to obstruct the police’s investigation of Beukes’ death by concealing footprints on the ground outside the room where Beukes was found dead.