Her son was arrested in July for allegedly murdering a community policing forum member and seriously wounding another, and last week, while Jaen-Lee Pyne was out on bail, a body was discovered in a shallow grave on a property where he previously stayed.
Pyne, 31, was rearrested a day after the body was found. He made his first appearance in the matter in the Heidelberg magistrate's court on Monday.
After court, his mother, Karen Anagnostatos, 49, in an exclusive interview with TimesLIVE Premium, spoke for the first time about the predicament her son finds himself in.
She denied both the murders Pyne, the alleged ‘Heidelberg bike shooter’, stands accused of.
She also claimed he was tortured while in custody.
Anagnostatos believes the charges against Pyne to be the result of years of bad blood between him and local CPF chairperson Flip Minnaar.
“My son did not kill anyone. He is being framed by the CPF. The local police are also on Flip Minnaar's side,” she said on Monday, minutes after her son appeared in the Heidelberg magistrate's court.
In July, a man wearing a colourful bike helmet and a black jacket and riding a silver motorbike, was spotted on CCTV footage after Etienne du Preez was killed by gunshots to the head and Minnaar was wounded.
Heidelberg social media platforms were immediately abuzz with rumours that the shooter was Pyne, who used to date CPF chair Minnaar's daughter Clarise.
“This was all lies. They have no physical evidence linking Jaen-Lee to the murder or the murder scene. My son was arrested because he happened to dress the same as the man on the bike,” Anagnostatos said.
“Also, as a mother, I can tell you I would recognise my son even if he is masked. That man on the bike was not Jaen-Lee. The body language was all wrong.”
She has lived in Heidelberg for more than two decades, but believes she has now “lost the town”.
“The people hate me and my child for something that has not been proven. People who used to greet me whenever they saw me on the street now cross to the other side to avoid me. I have lost this town.”
She is angry.
“My son is being found guilty for something that happened in other people's imaginations,” Anagnostatos said.
But the body in the garden is not a figment of the Heidelberg community's imagination.
“That doesn't mean my son killed him. I learnt about this body in September last year when a former love interest of Jaen-Lee told me about it.”
Anagnostatos believes the tip-off about the body in the garden to have come to the police from two former love interests and a former friend of her son.
“The two women and the man have turned against Jaen-Lee to cover themselves. The man was the one who pulled the trigger that night. My son wasn't even there.”
According to Anagnostatos, the man and the two women have now turned state witnesses.
“On the evening in question last year, one of the women and the man were at Jaen-Lee's home. His small children were watching TV in a room. The man shot the victim in the head in the garage and then dragged him to an empty duck pond in the front garden.”
She claims Pyne was surprised when he returned home to find the duck pond covered the next day.
“The man told him he had neatened up the yard and decided to cover the eyesore in the process.”
Anagnostatos found out about the body when visiting one of her son's former love interests.
“She told me about it and said she was very worried. The man had told her he would just blame Jaen-Lee if word spread. He knew the police and the CPF hate my son so much, they would believe it.”
After her son was released on bail he had to sign in at the Heidelberg police station every Thursday and Monday, as per his bail conditions.
“He was not even free for a week. He was released on a Friday, signed in on the Monday and was arrested when he returned on the Thursday to sign in again.”
She claims to have been manhandled by SAPS investigators during her son's most recent arrest.
“I was trying to video what was going on when one investigator shoved me to the wall and grabbed my phone.”
She still hasn't got her phone back from police.
On Tuesday, Minnaar, who survived the attack in July, told TimesLIVE Premium he did not want to comment.
“I am recovering, but I do not want to comment on the lies. The team investigating the shooting are not even from Heidelberg. They are provincial police and not personally known to me,” Minnaar said.
Gauteng police spokesperson Col Mavela Masondo also did not want to comment.
“Police cannot comment on what is being raised in court during bail application and on trial. However, if the accused or any other person alleged that he was assaulted by the police, he or she can open a case at the police station so that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate can investigate,” Masondo said on Tuesday.
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