Woman admits to murder

In happier times - Gansen Gounder

Justice has been served a mere month and a half after the gruesome murder of Brackenham father, Gansen Gounder (37). One of the suspects arrested in connection with his death, Michelle Nadasen (23) appeared in the Pietermaritzburg High Court earlier this week, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment on Tuesday. Nadasan was convicted of murder and in her guilty plea confessed to the role she played with her boyfriend in the murder of Gansen Gounder at Brackenham on the 3 January. The two suspects arrested in connection with the gruesome death last month, Michelle Nadasen and her partner who is 17 and cannot be named, appeared in the Richards Bay Magistrate’s Court on 2 February. The matter was remanded to 22 February. However when Nadasan made a confession earlier this week, she was taken before the Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge. Gounder was killed and buried in the garden of a Brackenham house and five days later his body was removed from the shallow grave and dumped in the Nseleni River. Gounder went missing on 3 January and the two suspects were arrested on 8 January while his body was recovered the day after.

Details
According to several media reports, Nadasen said Gounder had often made sexual advances on her. Gounder, who used to drink with Nadasen’s father, made an advance on her which prompted her to complain to her 17 year-old boyfriend. Her boyfriend told her the only way to get rid of him was to kill him. Judge Wendy Hughes-Madondo found substantial and compelling circumstances in Nadasen’s favour, allowing her to deviate from the prescribed life sentence for a planned and premeditated murder. The judge said Nadasen had had several opportunities to prevent her boyfriend from killing Gounder. She had lured Gounder into her backyard where her boyfriend had attacked him with a spade and threatened him. The judge said Nadasen had slept at home for four nights while Gounder’s body was buried in the backyard. She and her boyfriend only took steps to move the body away when police came to her home saying they needed her cell phone because she had made a call to Gounder soon before he disappeared. She said her boyfriend told her to give the police another cell phone. The judge said it counted heavily in her favour that Gounder had for some time made unwelcome sexual overtures to her. Other factors in her favour were that she had pointed out where Gounder’s body was, showed remorse by confessing to the murder, had no previous convictions, was a first offender and was prepared to testify against her boyfriend in his trial.