Killer Evades Justice for 7 Years, Starts New Families Across Continents

In a shocking true-crime case, Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren murdered his 25-year-old girlfriend Andrea Venter in front of witnesses in 2011, then escaped trial and evaded capture for 7 years. During this time, van Vuuren assumed three different identities in South Africa and Brazil, starting new families with multiple women and even becoming a father.

Thea Pretorius, van Vuuren's mother, was forced to come to terms with her son's killer past. As she admits in the trailer for the upcoming Showmax documentary "Original Sin: My Son the Killer," "He's capable of worse things... he's a killer." The documentary will follow the police's cat-and-mouse hunt across two continents, interwoven with footage of the murder, van Vuuren's trials, and interviews with both families, law enforcement, and legal teams.

The case highlights the ongoing issue of gender-based violence in South Africa, where a woman becomes a victim every 63 seconds. Despite Venter's efforts to protect herself, including filing a restraining order and moving cities, it ultimately wasn't enough to save her life. The documentary aims to shed light on this tragic story and the broader societal problem it represents.