VAN BREDA AXE MURDERS: HENRI’S VERSION

HOW IT STARTED

Martin van Breda opens a bottle of wine. He and his sons, Henri and Rudi, watch TV while his wife, Teresa, prepares supper. Their daughter, Marli, is spending time in her bedroom. After dinner the men watch Star Trek 2. When the movie ends they head to their respective bedrooms. 1 Rudi and Henri are both using their laptops in their shared bedroom. Rudi falls asleep but Henri stays awake and watches the animated show One Piece. 2 After a long while Henri goes to the bathroom, taking his cellphone along to play games. While there he hears strange banging sounds. He goes towards the bathroom door to investigate. When he opens the door he sees the silhouette of a man standing between the two beds, attacking Rudi with an object. He freezes and screams for help but later can’t remember what he shouted. 3 Suddenly the bedroom light goes on and his father walks into the room. The attack on Rudi continues. Henri pays attention to the assailant’s black clothes, gloves and balaclava. Martin moves towards and onto the bed, over Rudi towards the assailant, but the attacker hits him with the axe. His father’s body goes limp. The assailant laughs and continues hitting him. 4 Henri hears his mother’s voice outside the bedroom door asking, “What’s going on in here?” The assailant leaves the room. Henri can’t remember if he heard the sound of his mother being attacked. 5 The assailant re-enters the room and laughs. He and Henri wrestle. Henri manages to take the axe from him. He attacks Henri with a knife, cuts and stabs his chest and cuts his left arm. Henri hits him with the blunt side of the axe. The assailant stabs Henri in his left side and flees the room. He hears angry voices in the house which sound like people speaking Afrikaans. 6 Henri follows him out. He sees Marli and Teresa unconscious outside the bedroom door in the passage linking the bedrooms. 7 Henri sees the assailant on the stairs. He throws the axe at him. Henri loses his balance and falls down the stairs. 8 He gets back up, moves in the direction of the kitchen and sees the kitchen door [door next to the kitchen] is open. He goes outside and looks along the side of the house. He doesn’t see anyone and goes back inside the house. He wants to dial the relevant emergency numbers but doesn’t know what they are. He calls his then girlfriend, Bianca van der Westhuizen, but doesn’t reach her. 9 He goes up the stairs. He sees Marli and Teresa. Marli is moving but Teresa is motionless. He loses consciousness. 10 He wakes up on the stairs. Marli is still moving and he hears Rudi making gurgling noises in the bedroom. 11 He finds an emergency number on his phone and calls it twice but can’t get through to anyone. He becomes panicky and lights a cigarette while calling the emergency number from their landline. While he’s on the phone he goes outside. Henri doesn’t remember very well what happened but says he knows he saw someone outside and asked them for help. He then went back into the house until the first policeman appeared on the scene. He says he could feel himself going into shock.