First photo of weapon used to kill Van Bredas

Basic hardware axe inflicted at least 15 skull-splitting wounds

PHOTOGRAPHED for the first time, this is the axe that killed Henri van Breda’s mother, father and brother and almost took the life of his sister, Marli.

Coming out of the SAPS evidence bag, Exhibit Number 1 in the triple murder trial being heard in the Western Cape High Court looks innocuous, like a common or garden axe one can buy from a hardware store. Or as Judge Siraj Desai remarked when the murder weapon was handed to the bench: “It looks like an axe you’d chop wood with”.

It has been cleaned up since recovered by police from the stairs where, according to Henri, it landed after he hurled it at the fleeing balaclava-clad killer moments after fighting and disarming him on January 27, 2015.

In the crime-scene photo album the axe is bloodied, apparently from a killing spree that shocked investigators and paramedics.

According to the crimescene photographs, the 0.9kg Lasher hickory handle axe inflicted at least 15 skull-splitting wounds between 6 to 8cm long, killing Martin, Theresa and Rudi van Breda and almost ending the life of young Marli, who was struck the most times, including once across her jugular vein area.

The album’s pages provide a hint of what might arise further into the murder trial of Henri. There are photos of what the captions term “pre- sumable blood” on the basin, shower door handle and towel in one of the bathrooms of the Goske Street luxury home where the murders happened.

Some photographs are of cloths and a mophead on the washing line, which were later bagged. Count five of the indictment accuses Henri of tampering with the crime scene.

There are also photos of blue- black shoe prints enhanced with amido black, an amino acid- staining dye that can be used to detect bloody footprints that have been cleaned off a tile floor.

Much of the evidence heard this week focused on the security situation at the De Zalze estate in Stellenbosch, where the Van Breda family lived.

PICTURE: MIKE BEHR The axe used in the murders of Martin, Theresa and Rudi van Breda.