Accused killer ‘stalked and harassed’ ex’s family despite protection orders

A toxic relationship, a bad break-up, multiple protection orders, an assault case and, finally, a brutal murder.

That is the sordid tale that unravelled in Heidelberg this week after the arrest of Jaen-Lee Pyne, 30, who is accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend’s father and a friend as they sat chatting outside a restaurant in the Gauteng town two weeks ago.

Both men were shot in the head. Flip Minnaar, the father of Pyne’s ex-girlfriend, Clarise, survived the shooting and is in hospital. However, his friend Etienne du Preez died.

Pyne was arrested and appeared in the Heidelberg magistrate’s court this week, charged with murder and attempted murder. His bail application was postponed to Wednesday.

Both Minnaar, 66, and Du Preez, 74, were members of the local community policing forum, and the attack was initially thought to have been linked to this fact.

However, Pyne quickly became a suspect. CCTV footage shows a man in a black jacket on a motorbike and wearing a multicoloured helmet similar to the one owned by Pyne park in a side street and walk around the corner towards where Minnaar and Du Preez were sitting outside a local pizza place. Just seconds later, he runs back to the bike and drives away.

Three members of the Minnaar household — mother Loekie, son Le Roux and daughter Clarise — last year applied for protection orders against Pyne in the Heidelberg magistrate’s court.

“All three were eventually granted and made permanent. The orders granted to Loekie and Le Roux are for five years, while Clarise’s is forever,” a source close to the Minnaar family told the Sunday Times on Friday.

The family is living in fear after the shooting and asked that the family spokesperson not be named.

The Sunday Times spoke to numerous people in the town close to the family and the case.

Several residents confirmed that Clarise Minnaar, 30, started dating Pyne in 2019.

“They were on and off constantly. At one stage, in June 2020, she tried fleeing, but he always managed to reel her back in, whether it was by sweet talk or threats,” the family spokesperson said.

Late in 2022, Clarice finally ended the relationship. 

“But he did not accept her decision. It was a very toxic situation, with Pyne confronting and following members of the Minnaar household whenever he saw them in Heidelberg.

“In about August last year, Clarise was driving in Heidelberg when she noticed Pyne was following her. She called her father, and Flip told her to go straight to the Heidelberg police station and drive in through the back gate, which is usually open.

“Flip sped to the police station and found both his daughter and Pyne there. Pyne held his phone by his side and recorded a video of Flip and Clarise, which he later shared on social media.”

The Sunday Times watched the shaky and at times upside-down footage, accompanied by music that drowned out the conversation between the parties, that was shared on TikTok.

Below the video, a user asks: “Is it possible to listen without music?”, to which Pyne replies, “Don’t need to hear voices of dead people.”

The family spokesperson is angry.

“The situation was becoming more and more dangerous and worrying by the day. The Minnaar family approached the police several times asking them to arrest Pyne for breaching their protection orders, but they would say they could not find him, or that they were waiting for his version of what happened.”

Minnaar’s son, Le Roux, also opened a case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) against Pyne after he allegedly attacked him in January 2023.

“Le Roux and Clarise were driving when Pyne spotted them and started following them. When they stopped, Pyne punched out the glass on the driver’s side and assaulted Le Roux through the broken window.”

After this incident, Le Roux applied for a protection order, which the family spokesperson said had been made permanent in June 2023.

Two senior sources close to the case told the Sunday Times that when police raided Pyne’s home while looking for him after the shooting, the official police docket for the GBH case against him was found in his home.

“The docket they found was not a copy. It was the original one with a brown cover and writing in ink on the outside.”

A source at the Heidelberg court close to the case said Pyne had been angry after his application for the magistrate in the GBH case to recuse himself had been dismissed.

“Pyne wanted somebody from outside town to hear his GBH case. He believed Flip Minnaar, as CPF chair, was too connected to the justice cluster for him to have a fair hearing. This application was heard in court on Thursday June 27. The court turned the application down and a fuming Pyne stormed out,” the source said.

The Sunday Times approached the Gauteng police communications unit on Thursday for comment, but by the time of going to press on Saturday they had not responded.