The valley was a very relaxed valley. And then after the first attack, things changed a bit, but you never really thought, well, this is going to be a continuous thing. It wasn’t that long after another attack happened. And then we realized there was more to it than just one a one-off attack. ; We knew he was in the valley hunt because he had been cited.
It was a very difficult time for us because we were all in a way held terrorized by him in various degrees and it was like living in a state of emergency for a couple of years. ; Every night that they went to bed, they had to double lock all their doors and windows and so there was a lot of fear in the area.
an incident would happen and the police arrive on the scene and the person would just disappear and the [snorts] next morning you’d hear helicopters screaming around and they’d find nothing. We were um all on tent hooks with with our own safety and suddenly uh Reny went missing. [snorts] The Yamala Valley which means heaven and earth.
It’s a beautiful farming community approximately 90 square kilometers in size. It lies between the towns of Kaledan and Armanis and it’s approximately 150 km from Cape Town. It is in this area where Yiannis Mowers with the nicknames of Hans or Hannis conducted his reign of terror. his steparents were working on the farm and Hunie was a youngster that was going to school and then when he dropped out of school he actually worked on the farm for me.
He must have been about 16 when he first started working on the farm and he was a sharp. He was a bright youngster. He was very quick to learn. He knew what was going on. He was always a step ahead of everybody else. ; No, I known you for a long time. You used to hear stories, oh, he attacked this girl or he did this there and then charges were never laid and it used to fall away.
And we had an incident once on the farm where his girlfriend Rose had that lived in the house with him. She came running up to to us one night and said to me, “Hun, he’s taken them all hostage in the house and he’s got a gun and he’s got all that.” So, I’ve called the police and then we came and we met and they circled the house and they called him and eventually walked out and it was a toy gun he had and he just laughed at them and he held this plastic toy gun in front of him. He played games.
He played games with the police that night. for the for the principal for the police. for when I’m a little sl for
Steve. for it Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Was it right? Was
itch? will be Let’s say the family immediately identified him as
Yiannis Mowers. We immediately started following tracks from the place where Rinsy was kidnapped. I led a 10 member team. We did inquiries at neighboring houses in the area to see whether we can get any information. And uh we also had roadblocks throughout that whole day and the night until the next morning at 7:00.
Every time when he was on the run, when they thought they had him and they were chasing him, he would cross the river and he used the water courses always. He crossed the river and the dogs couldn’t follow it any further cuz he’d been in water. I can recall one search operation we had in this area where we were a 75 strong team of police members excluding farm workers and farm owners that assisted us.
And what we basically did is try to move in one straight line from this area towards that side. We lined up and I think at intervals of about five or six mters along the top along a road there. And then on each side of the valley there was a group and this side a group and they walked this way and the group that side from the road walked down through the valley across the river and up the other side to the base of the mountain.
; But the vegetation was so dense at that stage that it was basically impossible to penetrate. ; ; There were times at night we used to have a bull that we used to let out at night that ran around the house and if she was went really mad at night the Jack Russell in the house used to go frantic and there were number of occasions where I used to go outside and she would be absolutely absolutely going mad. She’d be frothing.
I knew also in my head it’s him walking around the house looking in to see what’s going on. I think there were on occasions he actually said to the police on a phone, “I’m watching you and you can’t find you won’t find me.” Everybody was in fear of him and he was a one man running the show.
He actually controlled his family for 3 years. He controlled this valley. This was a series of such violent crimes that Captain Kenneth Speed uh a seasoned detective from the provincial serious and violent crimes unit was sent to the area to assist us in the investigation of cases. Fore drone. photo. I thought it
funny. Fore speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. for
my andchech. foreign. So clear. I work in the afterl. up. And today my broke after Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign
speech. still and it was as said said and Bible ; 
; There was one old man that worked on this farm and he lived in a cottage quite close to where the river was. But every evening he used to go to town. used to go into town and he used to come back and he used to buy the harmonious times when it came out and he’d buy cooking oil sometimes or little bits of this or that and he’d come back here.
Okay, you don’t put two and two together and think but I always used to wonder because he wasn’t the brightest person. How was he reading the monest times? for the brew and the cookies and the baloney and he would read about himself in the paper and I think that fueled him even more because it was the game. Fore! Foreign! Foreign!
by Mexican Yeah. But I think he was handicapped a bit by having the two kids with him. It wasn’t
so easy to move to. He would have to find another place that was completely secluded and quiet to put the two kids at. David had a bulldozer and he was clearing bush and the the bulldozer was getting closer and closer and closer. So, thank goodness this happened because otherwise it could have been a disaster for all of them.
; In clearing the land, I had a very strong feeling that I was going to flush him out. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! in to be at the
Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. foreign. Yeah. One of the biggest challenges that we faced during the search for mowers in the area was that the local farming community did not believe that the mowers that they knew was able to commit the crimes that we assigned to him because they felt that he was a very nice person.
for Ichech. foreign. Yeah. ; ; foreign.
; On the 4th of March 2007 when he was caught by a local farm workers uh on a nearby farm here in the area, u I was told that a scuffle broke out. He tried to run away and they uh prevented him from running away and as a result of that he was assaulted. There was a reward of 100,000 rand that was put out um which for information that would lead to the arrest of mowers and that was paid out uh to different members of the community.
When we arrived at the hospital, I went through to the ward where he was being treated and I recognized him immediately. I mean, this was a guy that we’ve been looking for for months, uh, if not years, and I’d put up several wanted posters with his face on it. So, when I saw him, I knew this was the guy we’ve been looking for.
After he was discharged, we escorted him to a waiting police vehicle and he indicated to us that we need to drive through to the valley to a particular farm where he would show us where Renty was. Uh when we got to the farm, he gave us an indication of where we should start looking.
He mentioned a fallen tree and approximately 80 m uh before it across a little stream, you should find the entrance to a hole where the two girls were. And at that stage, I was only aware of Renzy that we were looking for. At that stage, um the news of two girls, um you know, was news to me. uh he explained it was his daughter Unicia Davids who was with Renzy in the hole.
We used the directions that he had given us and we formed a small search party and we located the area in which he had indicated to us and we began to search it. ; But after about 15 20 minutes we couldn’t find the entrance to this underground hole. He was adamant that the girls were alive.
I believed that he was telling me the truth. What was difficult was to make sense of what he was actually saying that there were two girls alive, particularly Renzy after 18 months um being missing. And secondly, his daughter was with her and she would have been about 4 years at that stage living underground in a man-made shelter.
; I’m still busy here. from where he was sitting in the buck he indicated to us a much smaller search area of thick bush and he said to us they are there in that area and while we were looking we shouted out Ren’s name informing her that we were the police it was safe she could come out um but nobody nobody said anything and nobody surfaced then said to us what we must look for is a black backdrop to the bushes is indicating this is the entrance.
So, we would have to actually not look at the bushes, but look through the bushes and see whether it looked like the terrain or whether there was something missing, a black spot. ; And that’s when I found the entrance to the hole. I couldn’t see anything. It was it was black. And I slid myself down and I called into the hole.
And I called out to Renie and I heard nothing. I called out again and there was no response that I could hear from from anybody inside. and Director Vi then made a decision that maybe if Mo called out Reny’s name, she would then realize that he was with us and perhaps that she would then be in a position to leave the hole.
with his permission so to speak. We felt at that stage he had such a psychological hold on both girls that they felt they would need his permission to leave the hole ; to detect escape called out her name as well. And between the two of us calling out her name, I heard whispers coming from inside this this hole, this this black space.
And I and I thought my initial impression was that there was more than one person in the hole and they were communicating with each other so that I couldn’t hear what was being said. But but after I called Ren’s name out again and again and Mo’s called out her name. The whispers I was hearing was actually a response from Renie, she was actually answering me, but she was answering in a whisper.
So I said to her, Renzy, please would you move closer to the entrance because I actually can’t see you. Um just move closer so that I can see you and then we can talk to each other. And as I was looking at this entrance, I I saw a pair of of feet um at the entrance and then moments later a smaller pair of feet in between.
So it was actually Renzy sliding forward on a on a on a bottom basically with um the little girl in between. I I couldn’t I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I mean, I didn’t expect, first of all, to find Renzy and to find her alive with Moses’s daughter was just something that I I I didn’t even conceive of. Um, Yunisha was so terrified.
Um, she didn’t want to come out. Um, I actually had to reach forward and grab hold of her little arm and and pull her um, kicking and screaming basically um, out of this hole. She didn’t want to come out. Um, so I I grabbed hold of her and then I I slid myself on my my stomach backwards out of the entrance. At that stage, um, I I wanted to focus now on on Renzy.
So, I I took Yisha and I pass I don’t even know who I passed her to. I just turned around and I passed her to somebody and I then slid down again to the entrance and I reached into the entrance to Renzy and I asked her to give me a hand so that I could help her out. And she said to me, she can’t come out. And I said, but you know, I’m I’m here to help you.
um just pass me your hand and and I will help you out. And she said, “I don’t have any pants on.” She said to me, “There are no pants in this man-made shelter for me to put on. Um so I can’t come out.” And it only occurred to me later that that would have been one of the reasons um that he used to keep them, you know, underground.
She wouldn’t have been um willing to leave the whole, you know, partially unclothed. It was raining and I had quite a quite a nice um overcoat on and I slid out and I took that off. ; Then I grabbed hold of her hand and I helped her out. I can’t I can’t tell you what that was that was like. I mean, I I’ve never experienced anything like that before, so I can’t actually even put it into words.
We arranged for the family violence, child protection and sexual offenses unit to come and collect the two girls and make sure they received a proper medical assessment and um counseling for, you know, for what they’ve gone through. Fore naked. I needed to make sure that there was nobody else inside this underground man-made shelter.
So, I slid into the hole. Basically, what I found was a structure approximately 2 m deep by about 2 and 1/2 to 3 m wide. Inside was a mattress on a base constructed of branches lashed together. The interior of the shelter was constructed of the same materials of branches and lashed together uh lined with large animal feed bags. The roof was constructed of corrugated [snorts] iron.
It was covered in basically the vegetation surrounding the shelter. So it it blended in completely. Um you wouldn’t have to know that there was such a shelter underneath there. He had a table, wooden table. On table he had a stove connected to a gas bottle with cooking oil and various other cooking material you would associate with the kitchen.
On the mattress was some duvet, some blankets, and then there were also various child’s toys and child’s clothing showing that there were two girls living in there for quite a long time. That particular weekend when Huny was arrested on the Sunday morning on the Friday the operator had gone home. If the operator had stayed he would have gone into where their underground dugout was.
He would have hit that by Sunday and I think at that stage I think Huny realized Monday came he would have be the operator would have started Monday. By Tuesday, he would have had to have been out of there or they would have all been because I was cleaning the bankments and everything. So the the actual excavator, his bucket would have gone through that little roof structure that they had built there.
; Either they were so strongly under his influence that they would have remained in this this particular shelter underground until their demise. or their survival instinct would have kicked in and they would have left the shelter. You know, one wonders whether she would have been able to find help in that condition.
I think the main driving factor in assisting us was the fact that his daughter was in the shelter and he was acting as a father to her rather than acting in the best interest of rent. I just remember when David phoned me to tell me that the girls had been discovered and I was just absolutely shocked that we’d been living and working so close by and had no idea what was happening.
And I remember um taking my dogs for a walk actually and it just hit me that I’m going to do something for these girls. I just had to do it. So I immediately phoned um Detective Speed and I said this is what I’m going to do. and what uh what should we call this fund? And he said something like uh whispering in the dark.
So I thought about it and I said the whisper fund and that was the beginning of the whisper fund. I went through to Cape Town about a week later to their place of safety and met them there. They were obviously looking a little bit better and had put on a bit of weight and so but very emotional and just um I was happy to meet them and just happy that they were out and just nice to spend time with them and getting to know them and that was the beginning of many many years of being with them.
They used to come and have holidays and weekends with me together and we used to go on walks and things like that. We were had a walk down. It was still reasonably intact cuz it was quite soon after the investigation. And Reny sat for some time and contemplated. And I think it was a good thing that she went back.
I think her time in the hole was obviously a time of of terrible fear and but she just seems to philosophically to have accepted that it’s something that happened in her her life and she’s she’s profound. She’s an amazing person. We’re looking to adopt a younger child and we went to a children’s comes home and they said, “Well, they’ve got this six-year-old girl.
Would we like to meet her?” So, we said yes. She just took to us like you couldn’t believe. She climbed all over us. She was just, you know, you could see she was a type of child that just wanted affection and love and was all over the place. She just wanted to learn. She wanted to touch.
She wanted to feel. She wanted to do so much. We always refer to her as like the wild child. She would run everywhere. She wouldn’t walk. She would be sort of slightly crouched. We fostered her for about a year before she came to live with us full-time. Initially, they said to us that she was a a big news case and that if we, you know, knew the story, we would know immediately who she was.
And then about 6 months into the fostering, they called us in and said to us, “Right, they’re going to tell us her whole history.” And of course, as soon as they mentioned it, we knew immediately. The scary thing was they turned around and said, “Well, now that you know her history, do you still want her?” And it was a case of, “Well, she was not to blame.
You know, it wasn’t her that did it.” And they said, “Of course. I mean, we love her.” It was quite mind-blowing that this little girl that we had in our home had so much history behind her. We were discussing issues around her father that her father was in jail. [snorts] So she then asked why was he in jail.
So we said, “Well, he was in for rape.” And I then explained to her what rape is. that it’s when a man forces sex on a a woman. Um, and we explained to her that it was a whole control power thing. I went on to tell her that we suspected that something had happened to her mother because of him and that he needed someone then to look after Nina that he went and kidnapped this little girl and kept the two of them in the hole.
I went on to tell her that he used to sexually abuse and rape Reny and that, you know, despite all of that, Reny still loved her and looked after her. And yeah, that it was what Reny had been through, we can only imagine. And I remember Nina because Nina was sitting on the floor looking up at me when I was telling her that.
And Nah’s face was just like one of absolute horror that and and her first thing was that how could he do such a thing mom? How could he hurt someone like that? ; I was shocked with things that Ren had been through and gone through. I still don’t understand why he did that type of stuff and why is he so mean. ; Nina was very curious as to Ren’s role once she found out.
So I phoned Jenny and I asked Jenny if we could come through meet with Reny and then we just let the two of them be. I mean they went off they went for a walk where she asked Reny all her questions and I think Reny was fascinated how Nina had grown and developed and you know so different to how she remembered um her when she was little.
Um I asked her like um how was it in the hole and how she felt and um if my dad had um any she did any bad things to her like hit her and she said that she hit her and she there’s still some scars left. foreign. [snorts] [snorts] We asked her, you know, what sort of questions did she ask? And her first thing was about her mother.
Does Renie remember anything to do with the mother? And Reny said to Nina that when she used to bring it up with Huny, Huny would beat her. So she got to a point where she just didn’t ask questions about Nah’s mother at all anymore. The fact that they when they came out they spoke in whispers, that shows you what a controlling man he was.
And I’ve tried to explain this to Nina that rape is all about control. It’s about power. It’s about having control over your victim. And and I said that’s where her and Reny were his victims because he had that control over them. ; I suppose he controlled everything that they were weren’t allowed to do.
They weren’t allowed to go out of the hole. They weren’t allowed to speak. They had their own sort of language when they came out of the hole. They they weren’t running properly. Whenever when we got Nina, she would run hunched over. ; On Nah’s birth certificate, it says Yunia Davids, daughter of Katrina Davids and biological father Huny Mo.
But Nenah has decided to change her name. She has decided to call herself Nina. Well, she has from the start when she came to live with us. So now she has formally adopted the name Nenina. I can’t be scared. There were in total 41 charges. is uh
put against Mis during his trial in the high court in Cape Town. He pleaded guilty on 28 of these charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment plus another 211 years. In my personal opinion, somebody who committed so many rape cases is a serial rapist. Although because he pleaded guilty, he was never psychologically assessed.
as far as showing remorse for the crimes that he had perpetrated over 3 years, the pain that he had caused each and every one of those complainants, I found no indications of remorse at any stage in my dealings with him. ; He was on the front page of newspapers. He was I think he was in places he wanted to be.
If you really think about it, he controlled the valley. He raped women. He controlled the police force. the one case he phoned the police and he said, “I’ve done this. I’ve raped the person and I’ve left a a brick in the road or a brick to mark the the spot.” He wanted them to know and for them to know that they can’t catch him cuz he was a step ahead of them.
will do. ; She’s a a very responsible person and she’s very philosophical and she just wants to help other people and yeah, she’s amazing. She’s in a very good space. She’s got a wonderful partner and just had a baby girl and back with her family and her friends and people on the farm and she’s content. Yeah. Lovely to see.
for Nina has always said that she doesn’t have any conscious memory of her time in the hole. Um, but I think subconsciously there are definitely areas of her life that have been affected from her time underground. ; She mostly does have memories of the way she treated her in the hole subconsciously.
I mean those would be there. Although we try to figure out how much she actually does remember from from the time in in the hole. ; So I do have fear and um I do have nightmares about him that he’s going to come and get me and take me away from this home. She is very scared of the dark. She’s been with us for 6 years and the duvet is still over the head, you know, and we’ve tried to explain to her that she’s safe here.
We won’t let anything happen to her. ; Initially, when Nina came through to us, there was this almost a lack of trust with myself and her. She would be very defiant. It was really hard to try and just to say to her what a family life should be. You know how you put together a family with the roles of the parents and if you are moaned at or shouted at this part of family life we don’t doesn’t mean we don’t love you we still love you and one and two ; she loves to run she will do cross country she long distance brilliant
brilliant runner she won numerous cups at athletic meets at school and nipple star player ; I do ballet and modern. I started modern um the beginning of this year and [snorts] um I I was dancing in a big concert in at in March at the back for 4 days. ; She has just blossomed academically. She’s just gone from strength to strength and it’s it’s coming from her where she just wants to do well.
She wants to excel. ; We had a very nice time last year when Reny turned 21. We had a lovely celebration in a restaurant in Hermanus and Ken Speed came through and Nina and it was just so special to see everybody. ; I’m like very indoor. I hate snails and I hate all the other animals in Jungle.
I like don’t go near them at all. It’s like if I see one like even like a mile away, I just like won’t go near that area at all. I just like stay in my bedroom and won’t come out. You do any sports at school? I do um running cuz I’m very good runner. Um and then I do nipple and then I also do dancing and then I used to do claronet.
; Did you do any water school? ; Yes, but not at the school I went the one in fisto but I used to do running. ; Same with me. ; And were you a very good runner? ; Yes. And how did it how does it feel to be on the farm? It’s nice like used to when I was on the farm before this all happened. Don’t fight me.
Okay. Wow. Come on, Lis. You have to like me, please. I think they’ll both grow obviously in completely different ways cuz they’re living completely different lives, but we’ll make sure that they always keep in contact with each other because it’s just important for both of them. Yeah.
