Family members of the late Eckhardt Mueller and Heimo Hellwig, the former Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT) Executive Director and Deputy Director, say they are struggling to come to terms with their murders, four years after they were brutally murdered.

The two executives were murdered in cold blood, by now convicted Ernst Lichtenstrasser, a colleague of them from the NIMT Tsumeb campus. The incident, which sent shockwaves across the country, happened on the morning of 15 April 2019, at the NIMT headquarters in Arandis.

Hellwig’s wife, Sabine Hellwig testified in the Windhoek High Court on Wednesday, in the final submissions before the sentencing of Lichtenstrasser. She said they were married for five years at the time of Hellwig’s death. It is further her testimony that Heimo had two children from a previous marriage, who she said are also finding it hard to come to terms with his passing. The couple does not have any children together, she added.

‘He was my soulmate. Our marriage was c
ut short, I am struggling to come to terms with Heimo’s loss. My husband had just turned 60. He was very healthy,’ Sabine said.

Hellwig worked as deputy director at NIMT for 23 years. He and Mueller, Sabine stressed, were not only colleagues but close friends.

‘They had a tight relationship. My husband had a lot he wanted to see. We wanted to travel. We have family and friends abroad, who we wanted to visit together. He wanted to see his daughters getting married and having children. All of this was cut short. His daughters still get counselling from time to time. His elderly mother is also struggling to come to terms with the loss,’ a visibly emotional Sabine testified.

Dietlinde Jacobs, Mueller’s daughter also said that she and her three brothers are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their father. It is her testimony that Mueller has seven grandchildren. A former employee at NIMT herself, Jacobs testified that she resigned after her father was killed on the campus. According to her, her
parents divorced in 2007 and her father remarried.

‘My father had just lost his wife in January that same year. The weekend before he was murdered, he had flown from Cape Town after attending his sister’s funeral. She died on 08 April 2019, a few days before he was brutally killed. My mother was still financially dependent on him. She is devastated. We the children have now taken over. My father was an unbelievably strong man, very healthy,’ Jacobs told the court.

Meanwhile, Lichtenstrasser insists he did not murder the deceased. This is despite his conviction by Judge Christie Liebenberg. Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef revealed that he has a previous conviction of theft, dating back to 1995.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency