Together, this South African homosexual couple is accused of killing four men and a boy in a three year killing spree that began in 1993. While in custody, the relationship between the softly spoken 26-year-old Coetzee and Brown, 32, turned sour with each accusing the other of being responsible for the killings.
The first body, was found strangled on August 30, 1993, on the Skurweberg gravel road near Pretoria. On November 3, 1993, the badly decomposed bodies of an unidentified 15-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man were found at the Tamboekiesfontein farm in Heidelberg. Both victims had been strangled, stabbed and shot. The fourth body was found in the veld at Mindalore, Krugersdorp, on September 1, 1995. He had been strangled and his genitals cut off. Three weeks later another body was found at a home in Constantia Court, Edenvale. All victims were allegedly last seen alive leaving nightclubs with to Coetzee.
Coetzee, a cross-dresser known in gay circles as "Kim," claimed the killings were the work of Brown, and that he merely helped dispose of the bodies. Brown, for his part, claimed Coetzee did the killings and that he merely robbed the victims and helped dispose of their bodies.
On May 5, 1997, several days after their trial started in the Johannesburg High Court, Coetzee was found dead in his Boksburg prison cell from an apparent overdose of pills. He left a note saying he no longer wanted to live.