SA Supreme Court to hear evidence from Petra Pfennig, daughter of alleged killer Dieter Pfennig, in Louise Bell murder trial
THE daughter of Louise Bell’s alleged killer, Dieter Pfennig, has given a detailed account in court of his odd behaviour and comments about the murdered girl and her family.
THE man accused of murdering Louise Bell speculated her younger sister was trying to make herself “ugly and nasty” so she would not be abducted too, a court has heard.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday also heard claims that Dieter Pfennig said the missing girl’s mother should not “give up faith” Louise might return home because if she did, she would be “letting her daughter down”.
Pfennig’s attitude toward the infamous January 1983 disappearance was outlined by his eldest daughter, Petra, during her sworn evidence in court.
Ms Pfennig, 42, said she had searched for answers about Louise - with whom she shared a school and a basketball team - following her father’s arrest for the 1989 abduction and murder of Michael Black.
She said she questioned him about Louise because police were searching the backyard of their former Hackham West home for the missing girl’s remains.
“I remember talking about Louise Bell and them digging up the house, I remember the conversation, I remember how confused I was,” she said.
“At the time I just didn’t believe he could have anything to do with that... I thought the police had the wrong man, that dad was innocent and he couldn’t have anything to do with it.
“Dad’s answers never made sense to me ... I remember telling him ‘no, that’s not right’ ... he changed the subject.”
SEE SEAN FEWSTER’S TWEETS BELOW
Late on Tuesday, Acting Justice Michael David gave Ms Pfennig the opportunity to apply for an exemption from testifying if she felt it would harm her or her relationship with her father.
She declined and, when asked if she wanted to give evidence, responded: “Yes, please.”
The trial has previously heard Ms Pfennig and Louise Bell attended the same school and played basketball together, but did not share a class.
Some witnesses have claimed the duo were “good friends” but Ms Pfennig’s mother, Sandra, has said that was not the case.
Pfennig, 67, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Louise, 10, between January 4 and March 1, 1983, and is standing trial without a jury and by judge alone.
Prosecutors have alleged Pfennig abducted Louise from her home and evaded arrest for decades until a “one in one billion” DNA match linked him to her torn pyjama top.
They claim he lived seven minutes’ walk from her home and liked to canoe on the Onkaparinga River — and that Louise’s pyjama top tested positive for trace elements from the river.
Pfennig, a former high school teacher, is serving a life sentence for the 1989 abduction and murder of Michael Black, 10, while he was fishing at Murray Bridge. His body has never been found.
A witness in the Louise Bell case claims Pfennig told him that her body rests in the same place as Michael’s, which has never been recovered.
Another witness claims that, when questioned about his whereabouts when Louise disappeared, Pfennig said “my alibi’s been sprung”.
A police re-enactment of the abduction, prosecutors claim, proves Louise would have been taken from her bedroom in just 30 seconds.
Another witness claims she received a seven-minute phone call from the abductor who said Louise was “with ‘them’, was happy with ‘them’ and did not want to go home”.
In her evidence, Petra Pfennig said she believed she and Louise were in the same class in both Year 3 and Year 5.
She explained Louise’s absence from her Year 5 class photo as the girl “being away that day”.
“We were friends but not, not everyday play with friends,” she said.
She said the pair played basketball together, had played punch buggy during a van ride and had gone on camp together.
“I have a memory of her sitting on her own (at camp), I was also at the time sitting on my own away from the group because I had been in trouble,” she said.
“I remember wondering if she had been in trouble too.”
Ms Pfennig smiled when she was shown a photograph of her family dressed in period costume taken on January 2, 1983, during a holiday at Swan Reach.
“We had a really good day, a really good family day,” she said.
She said she remembered her father left their holiday early and returned to Hackham West on his own while she, her sister and mother travelled on to Broken Hill.
Prosecutors have alleged Pfennig abducted Louise upon his return.
“I do remember talking to dad about being away (from us) while we were away,” she said.
“He told me he closed the curtains, did his computing and had run his own days and nights, waking up and getting up when he wanted.
“I remember he said he couldn’t sleep because of the helicopters.”
Ms Pfennig said she and her sister’s friends, who lived across the road from the Bell house, would talk about Louise and her sister when Pfennig would pick them up on Meadow Way.
“I remember us talking with our dad about Rachel (Bell), we said some nasty things about her weight and her being nasty,” she said.
“I remember dad saying she may be afraid she would also be abducted like her sister and because her sister was pretty she was making herself ugly and nasty so she wouldn’t be abducted herself.”
Ms Pfennig said her father also discussed Louise’s mother.
“He would say how it would be hard for her mother to accept that she was dead because she would always have faith that she might come home one day,” she said.
“He said if she came home one day that would be letting her daughter down by giving up on her if she was still alive.
“He said she would have to have that hope and not give up.”
Ms Pfennig conceded she had gone through a period of drug and alcohol abuse and living in foster care after her parents separated.
She outlined a sporadic history of contact with her imprisoned father, including personal visits and letters, in which she sought answers about Michael Black and Louise Bell.
She said her father would “change his story” and at one stage claimed he had continued on the 1983 holiday and had returned to Hackam West with the rest of his family.
Ms Pfennig said her father would later speak of having used cannabis while in prison.
The trial continues with expert forensic evidence about Louise’s recovered pyjama top and samples which prosecutors allege prove it had been “immersed” in the Onkaparinga River.