Medic details gruesome Van Breda crime scene

‘Waterfall’ of blood flowed down stairs as emergency services moved Marli

Whether or not Henri van Breda axed his parents and brother to death‚ he relived the horror of the aftermath yesterday through the eyes of veteran paramedic Christiaan Koegelenberg.

Testifying as a state witness in Van Breda’s triple murder trial in the high court in Cape Town‚ Koegelenberg described the “waterfall” of blood that flowed down the stairs as he moved Marli van Breda‚ who survived the 2015 attack.

Koegelenberg described how he was led by police into the Van Breda family home at De Zalze Estate in Stellenbosch‚ only to find everything “deurmekaar” (muddled up).

Henri was sitting with a small dog (known to the media as Sasha)‚ and Koegelenberg was told there were four victims in the house.

Climbing the stairs‚ he came across two of them. “I saw one was still alive. I went to the first two victims while my colleague went to the other two.”

Police took pictures‚ and then the blood from Marli’s wounds “flowed like a waterfall to the bottom of the stairs” as he and a colleague moved the 16-year-old.

“In my 39 years of service, this is one of the worst incidents I have ever seen.”

Members in the public gallery‚ including representatives of the Van Breda family‚ looked down as gruesome photographs were shown in court.

Earlier‚ an unsuspecting buck‚ and possibly its friend‚ became digital exhibits as Piet Botha‚ Van Breda’s defence counsel‚ shared footage from infrared cameras at De Zalze that showed a buck on one side of the fence at the luxury estate‚ and later on the other side.

“The buck could have gotten over the fence without triggering the alarm‚” argued Botha.

Judge Siraj Desai accused him of speculation‚ saying there was no way of knowing if it was the same buck.

State witness Marcia Rossouw‚ security manager at De Zalze where the murders took place‚ said there were many animals in the area.

Botha also showed footage of a 2013 incident in which a panga-wielding man tried to get through the fence, but was thwarted by guards.

After showing a video of cars driving through the boom at Kleine Zalze restaurant‚ next to the residential part of the estate‚ he asked Rossouw: “Can you see that it is nonsense that a record is kept of every car that comes and goes onto the estate?”