Why family’s dog didn’t bark that night
SASHA, the family’s pet dog, would not have barked at intruders, the Western Cape High Court heard yesterday in the trial of 23-year-old triple murder accused Henri van Breda.
During cross-examination, Van Breda told the court that she was the “opposite of a guard dog” and did not bark at strange sounds.
Senior prosecutor Susan Galloway pointed out that the family dog, according to earlier evidence, would, however, bark at their domestic worker, Precious Munyongani, when she arrived at the Van Breda home in the security estate De Zalze in Stellenbosch.
Van Breda explained that was because Munyongani played with her and she barked at sounds she “found exciting”.
He said he could not recall hearing the dog bark on the night when at least one attacker entered their house and murdered his parents and older brother, and attempted to murder his younger sister, Marli.
According to Van Breda’s version, he lost consciousness after the attackers fled, but he could not recall hearing the dog barking before that.
Van Breda has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder, one of attempted murder and defeating the ends of justice.
He claims his father, mother and older brother were murdered by a laughing, axe-wielding intruder at the family’s upmarket home on January 27, 2015. Marli, who was 16 at the time, survived the attack.
The State alleges that Henri committed the killings and that his wounds were self-inflicted in a bid to make it look like he too was a victim.
Galloway said she found it strange that if there was more than one attacker, as stated in Van Breda’s plea explanation, only one had gone to the upper level where the family was sleeping.
She asked: “At no stage did the attacker call for help?”
“No,” Van Breda replied. This was despite his father Martin rushing into the boys’ bedroom when his brother Rudi was being attacked.
She pointed out that the other intruders could have cleaned out the bottom of the house, yet nothing was taken.
“Isn’t it strange that they go to all the trouble of getting into your house, take out your family, except you, and then not take a thing… a cellphone, your mom’s handbag?”
Van Breda agreed it was strange, unless he had “interrupted them”.
But Galloway told the court that police officers who attended the scene were of the view that the house was “very neat” and didn’t look like a house that had been broken into.
She said Captain Nicholas Steyn had been called to the house because of Van Breda’s description of the balaclava-clad intruder.
Steyn was investigating the balaclava gang that had been behind a spate of burglaries at homes in the area at the time.
The trial was adjourned to Monday.