Cape Town Jews support murdered American woman’s family

MOIRA SCHNEIDER

The community has been at his side since the trial began in the Western Cape High Court on Monday, the day after what would have been Gabriela’s 41st birthday.

Gabriela, an only child, had been on holiday with her boyfriend in South Africa in July 2015 when her body was found by staff at the Camps Bay Retreat, an upmarket boutique hotel where the pair had been staying. She had been strangled and had sustained blunt force trauma to the face.

Her boyfriend, Diego Dougherty Novella, was arrested later that day.

It was during a Camps Bay shul brocha one Shabbos last May that a friend nudged Judith Cohen saying: “That’s the dad.” “I said: ‘What do you mean?’ and she replied: ‘That is the father of the young woman who was murdered.’

“I immediately jumped up and caught Howdy Kabrins as he was leaving.”

Cohen, a human rights lawyer, greeted Kabrins and wished him long life. “His eyes filled with tears that he could not hold back and I could see deep pain,” she remembers.

“The next words just tumbled out of my mouth as I asked: ‘Is there anything the Jewish community can do to assist you?’ He replied that he needed people in court on Monday for the bail hearing of the accused.

“I immediately promised him that there would be people. At that stage, I did not know who would come but I had a deep sense of confidence that if I reached out to people in the community they would come.

“I messaged people I knew in the community and moms I know from Herzlia and immediately received messages of support.”

As a result, there were about 15 in court on the Monday and Tuesday when the accused was denied bail.

And so the seeds for the Justice4Gaby Support Group, co-founded by Cohen and Dani Janks, were sown.

“I was just following the case in the news when I saw a Facebook post saying the family needed support, so I went to court,” Janks recalls the events of a year ago. “Chatting to Howdy outside the courtroom, he mentioned that he wanted to post something on Facebook but he didn’t know how to use it, so I sat with him and set up the Justice4Gaby Facebook page which I now help him manage.”

Along with WhatsApp groups, the tools enable Cohen and Janks to focus on their primary goal: to try and ensure that there is representation in court at every hearing.

“We’ve kept in touch and every time he’s come back, if I can go to court and support, then I do,” Janks continues. It makes a difference to them to know that there’s someone sitting behind them that’s on their side, especially now her parents are both going to testify.

“They’re not South African, they don’t have any friends or family here,” she adds. Howdy is attending the trial with his wife Linda and Gaby’s mother Doris Weitz and her husband Alex who all made the trip from Los Angeles.

“I think their biggest fear is that justice won’t be served,” Janks states. “They’ve obviously read about other South African cases and they don’t want this guy to get away with it – he comes from an exceptionally wealthy family in Guatemala which is why he didn’t get bail because he’s a clear flight risk.”

On the occasions that Howdy could not be in court, the group would still attend, giving him a live WhatsApp account from inside the courtroom.

Rebbetzin Tanya Ziegler of the Camps Bay Hebrew Congregation recalls the congregation’s involvement began when Howdy attended the shul one Friday night. The Camps Bay Retreat, scene of the murder, is across the road from the shul.

Howdy has made several trips to this country to try and ensure that justice is done, she says, and has been attending the shul for support. “When any Jew goes anywhere in the world, there’s always a community that is there to help them and we have tried to do that for Howdy, to know that he’s not alone, that we’re here as a community and we’ll support him in whatever way we can.” 

Congregants have invited him for Shabbat dinners, he has attended a few of the community’s events and Shabbatot and has connected with quite a few people in the congregation, she adds. “People have reached out to him, because it was such a terrible story – no father should have to go through something like that.”