Gonubie woman killed by thieves

AN ELDERLY East London woman was stabbed to death with a pocket knife in her home by two robbers on Monday.

Her elderly husband was repeatedly stabbed in the chest when he attempted to come to her rescue.

He was rushed to one of the city’s private hospitals, where he was treated overnight and then discharged yesterday morning.

The couple were identified by police yesterday as Marlene Cairns, 75, and Neil Cairns, 77.

Horrified neighbours who spoke to the Dispatch yesterday said the Cairns had moved into their 12th Avenue, Gonubie home more than 10 years ago. There had been a spate of burglaries at the Cairns’ home while they had been away.

The robbers are suspected to have gained access to their home on Monday by jumping over a side wall adjacent to a small access road fringed with bushes.

East London police spokesman Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala said that after entering the home the robbers confronted Marlene Cairns in the kitchen.

She had been going about her normal evening chores while her husband was in another room.

After making sure there was no one else in the house, the home invaders, armed with knives, demanded the couple hand over money and other valuable belongings.

It was at this point that one of the robbers stabbed Marlene in the neck. He then stabbed her husband.

Neil Cairns told police the attackers fled with only with money taken from his wife’s purse.

Mqala said police had been alerted to the robbery by a neighbour. A task team was assembled to search for the robbers, who were still at large.

Neighbour Wolfe Schropfer, who has lived adjacent to the Cairns’ house for 22 years, described 12th Avenue as “a quiet street”.

He said he saw red and blue flashing lights on the street outside his house after police and paramedics arrived, while he was watching the South Africa versus Sri Lanka cricket Test match on TV. “I did not think anything of it. I thought the gentleman [Neil Cairns] had fallen sick because I earlier saw him limping.”

He said he had later gone to bed. “I was woken up by a call from a relative informing me that something terrible had happened to my neighbours, and then I remembered seeing an ambulance and police.”

Schropfer said: “The couple have an alarm system that usually goes off when there are break-ins, but this time the alarm did not go off.”

Neighbour Annette Pinnell described Marlene as an active woman who enjoyed taking regular walks along 12th Avenue.

“She was also a religious person and hosted many church activities in her house,” Pinnell said.

Schropfer suspected the men who murdered his neighbour had initially hidden in the thick bush behind his house. “The bush is on municipal land, which used to be the old municipal nursery. Now there are vagrants living there, and everything that gets stolen here is hidden there,” he said.

Police said members of the Cairns’ family would not be speaking to the media about the incident. —