SOUTH AFRICA - Marie Ostbo, 21, Sedgefield, Norwegian student, 18 Apr 2018

[dotr]

KIDNAPPING attempt by men posing as police filmed in South Africa | Daily Mail Online
23 January 2015
"Dramatic footage filmed by woman who thought she was watching police arrest a woman… only to realise it was a KIDNAPPING when the victim tried to escape in South Africa

• A woman recorded a terrifying kidnapping attempt by men posing as police
• After first thinking it was an arrest, she starts to realise it is a kidnapping
• She says: 'I don't know if they're real police, because they're taking the car'
• Wearing uniforms and carrying assault rifles, the men pull a couple over
• But both victims manage to escape after being detained in separate cars"

 

[Dr.J.Bell]

I am currently in Sedgefield and will be doing some investigating tomorrow.
I will be very careful and discreet. I will also be sharing my live location with three friends (one of which is in the Garden Route).
I am hoping to get a more practical idea of where things happened.
I will post my findings once done.

I am so happy to hear the women were found and a spotlight was put on the trafficking here!

 

[tarabull]

STAY SAFE Dr. Bell!!!

 

[Elainera]

I am currently in Sedgefield and will be doing some investigating tomorrow.
I will be very careful and discreet. I will also be sharing my live location with three friends (one of which is in the Garden Route).
I am hoping to get a more practical idea of where things happened.
I will post my findings once done.

I am so happy to hear the women were found and a spotlight was put on the trafficking here!

Be safe and many thanks! Can't wait to hear your updates.

 

[Spellbound]

I am currently in Sedgefield and will be doing some investigating tomorrow.
I will be very careful and discreet. I will also be sharing my live location with three friends (one of which is in the Garden Route).
I am hoping to get a more practical idea of where things happened.
I will post my findings once done.

I am so happy to hear the women were found and a spotlight was put on the trafficking here!

I hope you are not doing this alone. Thank you ... just maybe your efforts will help us to know what may have happened to Marie. Stay safe.

 

[JerseyGirl]

I don't know if it is posted here, but I was reading this article from December 2018 Eight months later ... and still no leads on missing Norwegian student that linked to Find Marie page on Facebook:

Get Marie Home

 

[AmandaSkis]

So glad to have a correct sequence of events. There are still a lot of holes which is bothering me. For example, why did it take so many hours to find the cap, shoes and phone (plus, who did the cap belong to?). If you walked onto the beach, you'd be able to spot said items fairly easily if they had been left where she was last seen sitting. Where were they found exactly?

I also feel she may have been meeting someone, sitting alone on the beach, or maybe she was chatting to someone and wanted some privacy. She could have met a local, or another backpacker, or even someone in her group.

I really can't see anyone being swept away. We don't really get high waves even when the wind is raging but the current is strong so I wouldn't see her going into the water for a dip, or even to paddle. She strikes me as a smart young woman who wouldn't risk being swept out.

There is so much missing from all this, which is very frustrating.
My friend and I are trying to pull some cash together to go stay at the backpackers and do some interviews (staff, locals, etc). We are also reaching out to the first responders and journalists who wrote articles on the case.

As a side note, crimes spike when it is very windy because it provides the perfect cover. Everything is muffled.
She could have been pulled into the bushes and dunes and screamed but no one would have heard anything. Plus the wind shifts everything, removing evidence of any sort of foul play. Though the problem here is, from there, where did she/they go?

We are trying to find theories that could fit but there's a lot of data still missing.

I am also in the camp that she was attacked. I read that her belongings found on the beach were piled neatly...yet we also read that it was very windy that evening. Wouldn’t the cap at least blow away from the shoes? And maybe even the shoes get blown apart from each other?

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

@Dr.J.Bell
Did you go on March 3rd to investigate Marie's disappearance? Can you please give us an update?

 

[dotr]

May 2 2019

Marie Otsbo. (Photo: Faceook/Marie Otsbo)
Still no leads on missing Norwegian student
Earlier this week the Pink Ladies, an organisation that helps with the search for missing individuals, again made a plea for Marie online.

“Marie disappeared on 18 April 2018 on a beach in Sedgefield and there’s been no sign of her ever since. It’s been a year and her parents are left with broken hearts hoping for a break in the case so they can get closure. Our prayers and thoughts are with them.”

Anyone with information can phone the Sedgefield police station on 044-302-6600.

 

[Nicole Engelbrecht]

Hi Everyone. I have just started a true crime blog that covers South African cases and Marie's case will be up next. I have done quite a bit of research online and some social media sleuthing and I hope to be able to produce a pretty holistic overview of the case which I hope will help bring awareness to Marie's disappearance. Having looked at a huge number of different resources, I can tell you that there is a lot of incorrect information being reported. I will only include those details in my blog that I feel are verifiable. Two things that I will say are that the hat that was found did not belong to Marie and she did indeed know some of the girls she was travelling with as she had travelled with them several times before.

 

[dotr]

Hi Everyone. I have just started a true crime blog that covers South African cases and Marie's case will be up next. I have done quite a bit of research online and some social media sleuthing and I hope to be able to produce a pretty holistic overview of the case which I hope will help bring awareness to Marie's disappearance. Having looked at a huge number of different resources, I can tell you that there is a lot of incorrect information being reported. I will only include those details in my blog that I feel are verifiable. Two things that I will say are that the hat that was found did not belong to Marie and she did indeed know some of the girls she was travelling with as she had travelled with them several times before.

Welcome to Ws Nicole Engelbrecht, delighted that you will be covering Marie's case!

 

[Nicole Engelbrecht]

Welcome to Ws Nicole Engelbrecht, delighted that you will be covering Marie's case!

Thank you so much for the welcome!

 

[Elainera]

Hi Everyone. I have just started a true crime blog that covers South African cases and Marie's case will be up next. I have done quite a bit of research online and some social media sleuthing and I hope to be able to produce a pretty holistic overview of the case which I hope will help bring awareness to Marie's disappearance. Having looked at a huge number of different resources, I can tell you that there is a lot of incorrect information being reported. I will only include those details in my blog that I feel are verifiable. Two things that I will say are that the hat that was found did not belong to Marie and she did indeed know some of the girls she was travelling with as she had travelled with them several times before.

Thank you Nicole, for covering Marie's disappearance! Whenever I look at her picture I feel sad. Such a sweet and friendly face. What happened to that girl?? What are your thoughts?

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

Hi Everyone. I have just started a true crime blog that covers South African cases and Marie's case will be up next. I have done quite a bit of research online and some social media sleuthing and I hope to be able to produce a pretty holistic overview of the case which I hope will help bring awareness to Marie's disappearance. Having looked at a huge number of different resources, I can tell you that there is a lot of incorrect information being reported. I will only include those details in my blog that I feel are verifiable. Two things that I will say are that the hat that was found did not belong to Marie and she did indeed know some of the girls she was travelling with as she had travelled with them several times before.

It's great to hear that Marie's case will soon be getting more coverage. One never knows what bit of publicity might shake loose an important tip. MOO.

What is the name of your blog? I would like to read it. TIA.

 

[TatianaBarbie]

It's great to hear that Marie's case will soon be getting more coverage. One never knows what bit of publicity might shake loose an important tip. MOO.

What is the name of your blog? I would like to read it. TIA.

The easiest way for me to find the blog was:
1. Go to FB
2. Search for "True Crime South Africa"
3. Select "groups"
4. Go to the group page "True Crime South Africa" and she has plenty of links to her blog.

I didn't know if I could directly link her blog, and google couldn't find it, so this seemed the easiest way to share.

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

The easiest way for me to find the blog was:
1. Go to FB
2. Search for "True Crime South Africa"
3. Select "groups"
4. Go to the group page "True Crime South Africa" and she has plenty of links to her blog.

I didn't know if I could directly link her blog, and google couldn't find it, so this seemed the easiest way to share.

Thanks for posting that info. So a FB membership is necessary to read it?

 

[Nicole Engelbrecht]

Hi Everyone. Thanks so much for your replies. The blog is indeed called True Crime South Africa and it is on Wordpress so anyone can access it. The address is www.truecrimesouthafrica.wordpress.com
I didn't originally post it here because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to.
The blog is very new - just started last week- so there is just the one case up (the murder of Charmaine Mare) but I plan to post Marie's case by this weekend. I will also be starting a podcast soon. I am a published writer but very new to blogging so any constructive feedback will be gladly accepted. I will try and post direct links to my first post shortly.

 

[Nicole Engelbrecht]

Here's the link to the first of the four part series about Charmaine Mare which is a South African case from 2013 that got very little coverage because it happened at the same time as the Oscar trial.
I am very passionate about getting coverage for our local cases. There is so much coverage on US cases and I really feel our local victims deserve the same. I hope to create an amazing community around the blog and podcast so any support will be greatly appreciated.
The Murder of Charmaine Maré (Part 1/4)

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

Here's the link to the first of the four part series about Charmaine Mare which is a South African case from 2013 that got very little coverage because it happened at the same time as the Oscar trial.
I am very passionate about getting coverage for our local cases. There is so much coverage on US cases and I really feel our local victims deserve the same. I hope to create an amazing community around the blog and podcast so any support will be greatly appreciated.
The Murder of Charmaine Maré (Part 1/4)

@Nicole Engelbrecht
I read parts 1-4; what a chilling, horrible story! You are a very good writer and your telling of Charmaine's story is compelling and sensitive. I was immediately drawn in. I agree that Charmaine was brave and did everything she knew to do and felt permitted to do; yet, as you stated, she was still a victim.

I've come to believe that the next step in preventing some of these types of murders is to educate and socialize girls, starting at a young age, to recognize the very real danger of sexual predators and to know it's imperative to act immediately. And, most importantly, to know they have the right to do so, and to "make a scene" if that's what is necessary! I've posted this idea a few times on the threads of other teen victims who did smart, brave things to try to diffuse, escape or document situations, but apparently didn't feel they had the right to cross certain societal lines that prescribe acceptable female behavior in order to do everything possible. These cases stay with me and haunt me with the thought of "If only..."

Charmaine may have concluded she wasn't entitled to help or that there was no possibility of help after the police failed to act on four calls for help and the neighbor refused her bus ticket money. She may have felt that returning to De Jager's house gave her better survival odds than wandering the streets of a strange city, without money where nobody was willing to believe her / help her.

Sharing the stories of victims on your blog and podcast in the way you did Charmaine's will, hopefully, help to educate people--both adults and teens--to the dangers of not taking immediate, strong action. Charmaine's mother telling her to run in the kitchen and grab a piece of bread when enduring sexual coercion and the threat of sexual assault is a prime example. Adults need to empower girls to know they have the right to seek help and fight back with whatever it takes, at the first hint of danger or inappropriateness, and to keep insisting loudly and unapologetically until they are effectively helped. MOO.

I think your blog and podcast are off to a great start and I look forward to reading about / listening to other cases, especially Marie's. I believe the angles you covered and the details you included in Charmaine's story will get people thinking. Your woman's point of view and empathy for all the victims in Charmaine's case is evident and provides so much more than a "play-by-play" of the crime, which is too often the formula in other true crime podcasts (such as Case File). Keep up the good work!

 

[Nicole Engelbrecht]

@Eleanor Rigby I am unbelievably grateful for your feedback and kind praise.
I am in complete agreement that this is certainly a case of a young girl not feeling that she has the right to say no. I don't know what other incidents of this nature she suffered in her life but I can only think that this is partially learned behaviour and partially a societal norm. Sadly I think that it will take many generations of women for us to be able to remove this conditioning because it runs so deep and permeates so many levels of our lives.
What was so sad to me, as well, is that I could not find a single picture of Hiltina Alexander on the internet and hardly any information on her as a person. I really wanted her to share an equal part of the story but I guess, again due to our societal norms, she is seen as a "less interesting" victim (which I firmly disagree with).

Your support is so valuable to me and I promise to do my utmost to continue producing content at this level.