Axe killings: arrest breakthrough.
‘We’ve waited for this day,’ says a friend of the Van Breda family after the arrest of surviving son Henri in connection with the horrific De Zalze axe murders – but many questions remain unanswered
SELDOM has a murder mystery captured the South African imagination as this one has – a rich family slaughtered in their upmarket home in an exclusive estate by an axe-wielding killer. Three were left dead and two survived – one of them with just a few scratches.
Speculation, whispers and outright accusation flowed in the days that followed. Yet as the weeks, months and then a year went by there wasn’t even so much as an indication of an arrest.
The case was shrouded in secrecy, the police giving the media little more than vague statements about the investigation being ongoing and all leads needing to be explored.
Then, just as we’d given up hope of an arrest ever being made, the bombshell dropped. Henri van Breda turned himself in to Stellenbosch police at 3.30 pm on Monday 13 June.
The “21-year-old suspect”, as police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel André Traut referred to him, now faces three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. The deceased are his father, Martin (54), his mother, Teresa (55), and his older brother, Rudi (22).
His sister, Marli, who made a miraculous recovery after having her jugular severed and sustaining a severe head wound, will have to come to terms with the fact her brother will be charged with trying to kill her too. So why did he give himself up now? It’s unlikely Henri would have turned himself in, legal experts say. As with other high-profile cases – such as those of Oscar Pistorius and Fred van der Vyver, who was accused of killing his
(From previous page) girlfriend, Inge Lotz – the police informs the person that they’re about to be arrested.
The police are likely to have told Henri, via his lawyer, that he was going to be arrested and that he could either willingly hand himself in or be arrested, explains Danie Gouws, a defence lawyer from Port Elizabeth.
“At the police station his rights would have been read to him and he would have been held in custody until a bail hearing.”
Turning himself in would count in his favour, Gouws adds. He’s being accused of a schedule six crime, the most serious in South African law, so showing his intent to cooperate would count in his favour during bail hearings.
William Booth, a leading Cape Town criminal lawyer, agrees.
“His lawyers would probably have advised him to go to the police station voluntarily to make it easier for him to apply for bail and so they could argue Henri isn’t a flight risk.”
Booth says there aren’t many examples of an accused voluntarily giving himself up due to a troubled conscience. “A person like Henri has good lawyers – they would in all likelihood have advised him against doing anything unless they felt it was in their client’s best interest.”
Will the long delay have any significant effect on the case? Booth doubts it. “In South Africa it often happens that suspects are arrested very quickly, before proper detective work has been done. It could be
‘His lawyers would have advised him to go to the police station’
in this case the police made sure they did their work thoroughly to make sure the case was watertight. That’s actually how good police work should happen.”
HENRI’S family are likely to be shattered by the recent developments. In an interview last year his aunt Narita du Toit, Teresa’s sister, said she didn’t believe Henri could have been involved (YOU, 27 August 2015). “He’s a lovely child who could never do something like that,” she said. “You know when a child has done something wrong. You can see it in his eyes or body language. But with Henri there was nothing.” When a family member is charged with murdering someone directly related to them, the rest of the family is badly shaken, says Anni Hesselink, a criminologist from Unisa. “In the case of children and young people, family and friends become caught up with the innocence and kindliness of the accused. They’ve seen the person grow up and have seen only his good side.” She believes family members struggle to accept that someone so close to them can commit a gruesome act. “They experience shock and disbelief. To them the person and his family were perfect. In the case of a family murder, the other family members will deny the person could have
done such a thing. To them the parents did the best they could for their child.”
A case like this will have a major impact on a family, Hesselink adds. “Close family members will always question their own judgment and love. They’ll wonder why they didn’t see the danger signs or intervene in time.”
Family relationships could also suffer. “It can cause rifts, especially if for example the accused is the husband’s blood relation and the wife’s in-law. The wife may think the person is guilty and the husband may feel his wife no longer trusts him or any of his family.”
A friend of Teresa, who knew her for 33 years, is pleased an arrest has finally been made.
“We’ve waited for this day,” she says from Pretoria.
“My dear friend Teresa would have turned 59 on 19 June. Imagine these developments happening now so close to her birthday,” she says, breaking down in tears.
Their husbands were also close friends. “If I tried to talk to my husband about the case he’d always say, ‘I’d rather not talk about it.
“As a way of getting closure I started an album with photos of the Van Bredas during their visits to us. In one photo Henri is about six or seven years old. All the children are sitting together on a couch watching TV. He’s on his own. He was definitely something of a loner.
“All Teresa’s friends and I will keep an eye on the trial. I’m told the police once remarked about this case, ‘ The wheel turns slowly, but it turns’ .”
In August last year Dr Rosa Bredekamp, a Stellenbosch psychologist, told YOU, “I think the Van Breda family needs closure.”
Perhaps everyone involved will get that now.