Family struggle to come to terms with loving mom’s murder

THE family of slain Lambert's Bay mother Liezel Toontjies are struggling to come to terms with her murder.

Toontjies, 36, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend on Mother's Day during a domestic dispute, police said. “The suspect (in his thirties) is expected to appear in court for murder,” police confirmed.

The family yesterday spoke about how they were feeling. “It is very tough for us, we are still not functioning properly but we have to carry on,” family spokesperson Esmaralda van Rheenen said. “All the prayer and support is carrying us through. Her parents are very old, so her father is just quiet and her mother is taking it day by day.”

Toontjies leaves behind her children, who are between one and 16 years old.

Her murder on Mother's Day also marked her brother's birthday, and was mere weeks before the baby would turn two.

“After 12pm, someone came to call my boyfriend, her brother, to say she's laying in the yard by another auntie's house. He did not want to see his sister like that so I went,” said Van Rheenen.

“When I got there I saw her laying. I knelt, trying to speak to her, saying, ‘It's me, stay with me', but I felt her pulse started getting slower.

“Her seven-year-old then came up behind me, hanging on me, and I realised I had to get up and take him away because I could not let him see his mother this way. The police then came.”

“We still don't know exactly what happened, all the friend said is that it was him. We assume it was an argument because the friend also mentioned Liezel kept smacking him away, saying, ‘Leave me alone', then he grabbed her arm, then she fell. By the time we found her it was done.”

According to Van Rheenen, the boyfriend had been abusive to Toontjies in the past and had been in prison for murder before.

The couple had four children. She will be buried next Saturday.