Ex-delivery man gets 22 years for murdering and burying his pregnant girlfriend

A former pizza delivery man in the Western Cape received a 22-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to murdering his girlfriend.

Nicola Pienaar-Vice‚ 28‚ worked for her mother Marlane‚ a psychologist in Paarl‚ as her assistant when she disappeared in January 2017.

Her body was found buried under rubble in the backyard of 33-year-old Jaco Oosthuizen’s parents’ house‚ where he lived for 25 days after she was reported missing by her mother.

TimesLIVE reported at the time that Oosthuizen reportedly had a history of using drugs such as tik‚ mandrax and dagga.

Oosthuizen entered into a plea and sentencing deal with the state on Wednesday in the High Court in Cape Town.

He was arrested in Port Elizabeth after he drove there in Pienaar-Vice’s car‚ which he stole. He originally told police he had dropped Pienaar-Vice in Oudtshoorn after they got into a fight.

But he later confessed to his mother‚ Marietjie‚ that he had murdered the young woman. He then pointed out to police where he had buried her.

Pienaar-Vice is believed to have been strangled to death and a postmortem report showed she was six months pregnant.