Model to be cremated today in private ceremony

REEVA Steenkamp is to be cremated in her home city of Port Elizabeth today, in a private ceremony for family and friends.

Yesterday her grieving family said they were desperate to know the truth about her death.

“All we want are answers ... as to why this had to happen, why our beautiful daughter had to die like this,” her mother, June Steenkamp, was reported as saying.

In an interview published on the front page of South Africa’s ‘The Times’ newspaper, Ms Steenkamp said: “Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?

“Just like that she is gone,” the newspaper quoted her as saying in what it said was an emotional telephone interview. “In the blink of an eye and a single breath, the most beautiful person who ever lived is no longer here.”

Michael Steenkamp, the model’s uncle, said the family was trying to focus on the funeral and not on Pistorius’s appearance in court today. Mr Steenkamp said the family has no “animosity or hatred” towards the athlete, adding that that they just want the truth.

Mr Pistorius is set to return to court today for the start of his bail hearing. It will be the first opportunity for the prosecution to describe evidence police gathered against the 26-year-old double-amputee runner and the reasons why he was charged with murder. Prosecutors allege the killing was premeditated.

Mr Pistorius' family denies he committed murder though they have not addressed whether he shot her.