PODCAST | When a wife kills: How would the Krebs murder trial play out today?

On the evening of October 21 1987, police received a panicked call from a Bedfordview, Gauteng resident. His neighbour, Maria Krebs, had arrived at his home naked and hysterical. Her husband was dead, she said, and she had fired the gun that killed him.

As the police investigation into the death of German national, husband and father of two Ralf Krebs progressed, it became clear the façade presented to the world by the Krebs family did not match reality.

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Thrown into the mix of wealth and murder was the presence of a 22-year-old sex worker who had allegedly been procured by the couple for a threesome that night. As the country’s attention shifted to this new and fascinating aspect of the crime, many seemed to forget a man had lost his life.

In episode 71 of True Crime South Africa, we explore the murder and consider whether this case would have played out differently in present-day South Africa, and if the gender roles were reversed how would things have been different.

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