The Scissor Murderess

At 19 Marlene Lehnberg was the youngest woman to be convicted of murder in South Africa. Known as the Scissor Murderess, Marlene would do anything for love. Yes, even that.

Born in a strict, conservative house, Marlene wasn’t allowed to socialize. Her experience with men was zero, and as a naïve, intelligent, 16 year old girl she had her first real contact with men outside her family when she began her first job at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Rondebosch, Cape Town in February 1972. There she met Christiaan van der Linde, the married chief technician in the orthopedic workshop. In the beginning, she saw him as a friendly father figure, the opposite of her father who was stingy with affection. A year later, in April 1973, they started their affair.

The affair lasted a year but when Van der Linde’s wife started getting anonymous phone calls, he stopped it. Marlene was sure that his wife was the only obstacle in the way of their love even though Van der Linde had made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of leaving his wife. In September 1974, Marlene decided to contact his wife and she called her letting her know about the affair and that they love each other. Van der Linde’s wife hung up on her. A few weeks later she contacted her again, this time making an appointment to meet her. It was during this meeting that Susanna van der Linde made it quite clear to Marlene that she had no intention of letting her husband go and that he may continue the affair but no divorce was on the horizen.

It was at the hospital where Marlene met Marthinus Choegoe. He was there to fit an artificial limb because of a car accident he had been in. She asked him to meet her later and after giving him a bottle of gin, she asked him to murder someone for her. Choegoe first declined but later agreed. He went to the address twice but couldn’t go through with it. Marlene gave him a radio and promised to give him a car and to sleep with him if he goes through with it.

Marthinus Choegoe was not the only person Marlene tried recruiting to murder Susanna Van der Linde. She also approached Robert Newman, a 24-year old engineering student. They were staying in the same boarding house at the time. Robert would later tell how difficult he had it as things disappeared in the boarding house, and suspicion fell on him as the newest resident. A radio disappeared and then his pistol was stolen. He reported it to the police and indicated that he suspected Marlene Lehnberg but nothing came of this. (*)

As a side note, Marlene and Robert knew each other quite well as some topless pictures that he had taken of her, surfaced later at her trial.

On 4 November 1974, Marlene picked up Choegoe with the story that she is moving to Johannesburg and wants to go say goodbye to Van der Linde. According to him, it wasn’t until they were on their way there and she handed him a pistol that he found out that it was for much more than that.

The following is much more of a he-said, she-said.

According to Marlene Lehnberg, she rang the doorbell but got back in the car to wait. That was proven to be a lie though.

Marthinus said that she was part of the whole event.

When Susanna opened the door and saw them, she was scared and threatened to call the police. Marlene tripped her and when she fell, she hit her with the butt of the pistol across the jaw. Marlene told Choegoe to strangle Susanna and then handed him scissors she had taken from the sideboard with which he stabbed Susanna seven times.

Afterwards Marlene took Choegoe home, after squirting him with the green die of the gas pistol Susanna asked her husband to get her. He did not get rid of the pistol or gas pistol though. She then drove to Johannesburg where she went to stay with her uncle.

Christiaan van der Linde tried calling his wife a few times and when he couldn’t reach her, he asked their daughter to go check to see if her mother was all right. When she went to check on her during her lunchbreak, she saw her mother lying on the floor through the window.

When Christiaan was asked to identify his wife, his callousness was a reason later to suspect that he was involved and in the very least had influenced Marlene to kill his wife. Nothing, however, could be proven in that regard.

Because Marthinus Choegoe had been seen a few times in the vicinity, the police was looking for him as a suspect.

The police went to see Marlene and on the way to the police station, she said that she had been expecting them since she heard about the murder. She also said that she had an affair with Christiaan van der Linde. Initially she denied knowing Marthinus Choegoe but later when interviewed by another police officer, she suddenly confessed that she took him to Susanna van der Linde’s house but waited outside.

Marlene Lehnberg and Marthinus Choegoe were arrested on the same day and charged with the murder of Susanna van der Linde. The trial started on 5 March 1975 and lasted seven days before the verdict of guilty were handed down to both of them and both were sentenced to death.

In July 1975 the death penalty was overturned on appeal and Marthinus Choegoe was sentenced to 15 years and was released 11 years later, to became an evangelical preacher. He died in 1992 in a car accident.

Marlene was sentenced to 20 years of which she served 11 years before being paroled. In October 2015, Marlene Lehnberg committed suicide because she couldn’t handle the pain of osteoporosis and breast cancer.

Because it was suspected that Marlene thought to sell her story to the press, the "Marlene Lehnberg clause" became law in South Africa to prevent convicted criminals from profiting from their crimes.