The search for Kerry Winter: A brother's painstaking quest for truth and closure

Seventeen years have passed since it emerged that Kurt Winter’s sister Kerry was murdered by her former partner in Dubai, and her body was never recovered. Winter has made it his quest ever since to uncover the circumstances that led to Kerry’s demise.

It has always been his longing to retrieve his sister’s mortal remains that could be laid to rest in Durban, the Winter family’s hometown.

Having shared a close bond with Kerry, Winter has not let up in his efforts uncovering the truth over the years. That mission has yielded one dead-end after another, which has been further frustrated by the authorities in Dubai, and he has also received no joy from the South African government each time he turned to them.

His latest endeavour to unlock information about his sister’s demise has come in the form of a book he penned, with the hope that it could produce possible leads or cause those in the know to share details. 

The Durban launch of Help Us Find Kerry, a light read, occurred in Morningside last month. Given all the strife and heartache searching for Kerry has saddled Winter with, his wife Trudy suggested the book idea to relieve some of the anguish he has endured.

“Trudy urged me to write this book in order to get healing and to take my mind off things. There was a time when I lost my memory, and to date, no doctor can tell me why or what happened,” said Winter, who overcame dyslexia in crafting his written work.

The 36-year-old Kerry’s whereabouts have been unknown since August 2008. Briton Mark Arnold (58), Kerry’s ex-boyfriend, has been convicted of her murder and is serving a 25-year sentence in Dubai for the killing.

The version of events put forward by the prosecution team during Arnold’s trial, which began in April 2009, was that a quarrel occurred between Kerry and him at her Dubai residence. He then clubbed her with a metal baseball bat and eventually dumped her body at sea, with weights attached.

It emerged that Arnold also attempted to assault Kerry’s Lebanese housemate, who tried to intervene during the incident at her villa. 

Arnold and his legal team have refuted the version that he killed Kerry. Instead, they maintained that Arnold and Kerry argued on the day she was last seen. They were driving through the desert, and Arnold tried to calm Kerry down, but she continued to hit him before getting out of the car. He then drove off.

“My mom Carol still believes Kerry will walk through the door one day. This ordeal has changed my mom’s life; she does not sleep well at night and is very withdrawn.” 

However, Winter does not share the same flickering hope as his mother. “I have accepted that she has passed on. There was just too much blood, and the forensics told us it was impossible for her to survive the attack,” Winter said, describing the scene at Kerry’s villa after she was supposedly attacked on August 18, 2008.

Winter said Kerry and Arnold’s relationship became acrimonious, and they separated; however, he still wanted to control her life. There was an instance when Kerry allegedly found pictures of girls on Arnold’s laptop, and loads of cash were dropped off at their home.

“When Kerry questioned him (Arnold), that’s when the abuse began. I am passionate about helping other women who are going through the same abuse, and I want to create awareness of how rife human trafficking is.”

Winter grew up in Durban and attended St Anthony’s Primary School. Later, the Group Areas Act saw him and his family moved to Newlands East. He excelled at sport and achieved Natal colours for rugby. Winter is also an avid cyclist, and over the years, he has completed many cycle tours.

“As a young adult, I travelled the world and experienced different cultures.” Winter, who has been in business for 35 years, said Kerry also enjoyed travelling and worked for an events company.

“Being the oldest brother, I was protective but allowed Kerry to enjoy her life. We had similarities, like the creative career path we both followed.”

Winter described his mission of piecing together what happened to Kerry as fraught with “many roadblocks.” 

“We received no assistance from both governments, and up to today, my mom has never received any of Kerry's belongings after 17 years.”

What shocked Winter the most was the lack of South African government assistance. “If we could get assistance with a presumption of death certificate, it might help my mom to claim Kerry’s belongings. But between South Africa and Dubai, none of them are prepared to assist, even though there is a sentence for Mark Arnold, who is serving 25 years in a Dubai prison. 

“It has been frustrating, but I believe that the truth will prevail.

'We hope that someone will come forward and tell us what Mark did with Kerry's body," was the fervent hope that Winter holds.

*The book is available on Takealot’s online platform

DAILY NEWS