Gruesome evidence in Rohde trial
Susan Rohde’s final hours were spent confronting her husband who was seeing another woman. Now gruesome new details about her death have emerged in court
THEY seemed the picture-perfect couple – the groomed and gorgeous wife and her successful, ruggedly handsome husband, smiling for the camera as they did things they both loved together. “Jason must be so proud of his gorgeous wife,” one friend commented on a striking picture Susan Rohde posted on Facebook last year.
But 18 months later, a rather different image of Susan is being scrutinised on a big screen in the high court in Cape Town: her naked body – bruised and unadorned – is on display for all to see.
Her husband, Jason, neatly dressed in a dark suit but clearly suffering the effects of the stress of the past months, averts his eyes from the distressing image. Instead, the former boss of property group Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty, South Africa stares down at his hands while the image of his wife’s body and her state of mind at the time of her death on 24 July last year are picked apart.
As has become tragically evident, behind Susan’s idyllic Facebook persona quite the opposite was playing out in the Rohde home. The marriage was apparently in freefall. Jason was having an affair with a fellow estate agent and Susan was depressed and desperate.
Within months she’d be found dead in her and Jason’s hotel room at the Spier wine estate near Stellenbosch and he’d stand accused of her murder, a charge he denies. According to him, Susan committed suicide.
Harrowing details have been unfolding in court about what went down in the early hours of that Sunday morning.
The charming life of Susan Rohde
Susan (47) seemed to have it all: a luxurious home, gorgeous kids and a loving relationship. Just over a month before her death she posted a picture of her and Jason cuddling up at a stadium. “Saturday rugby with Jason Thomas Rohde,” she wrote.
“Lovebirds!” one of her friends commented under the photo. “Cute couple,” remarked another.
By all accounts Susan, a former primary school teacher at the exclusive Catholic girls’ school Brescia House in Bryanston, Johannesburg, was a warm woman who poured her heart and soul into her family and her home. She often
‘She definitely didn’t look like the picture of happiness. People who lived close to the Rohde family home often heard fighting’
shared inspirational messages and photos of the places she’d been to with Jason.
One photo shows two glasses of red wine on a little table in their garden in Bryanston. She shared the pic in May last year. “With Jason Thomas Rohde,” reads the post, with a kiss emoticon added.
“The chat corner” is how Susan described this special part of her garden in an article in community magazine Get It Johannesburg North in 2015. “It feels as if you’re in the bush when you’re sitting out there. It’s where my husband and I go to enjoy some good wine,” she added.
“People are always laughing at me because I’m constantly busy moving things around or buying new cushions, but I love to switch things up around me,” said Susan, who was known for her creativity and good taste.
The house was full of family photos and memorabilia she and Jason had collected on their travels. One souvenir was a Fly Me to the Moon poster in her pink kitchen, precious because it was the name of the song she and Jason danced to at their wedding.
But life wasn’t as rosy as she portrayed it. In Jason’s plea explanation, which was read aloud in court, he acknowledged their marriage was anything but perfect and they’d needed to go for marriage counselling.
“Susan’s conduct vacillated between anger, resentment, desperation and sadness,” he said. “I believe, with respect, that her exponential deterioration and inability to reason or conduct herself rationally ultimately led to her committing suicide.”
Her final days
“I saw Susan a few days before she died and she looked noticeably skinnier,” one of her friends told YOU last year. “She definitely didn’t look like the picture of happiness. People who lived close to the Rohde family home often heard fighting.”
Susan spent her last days in the Western Cape, accompanying Jason to Sotheby’s annual conference. Agents from around the country congregated at the Spier wine estate near Stellenbosh on Friday 22 July. The weekend that lay ahead was full of small talk, swanky parties and a glitzy prize-giving – the Oscars of the company, it was dubbed.
(From previous page) On Friday the agents attended a wine-tasting and that night everyone went to an ’80s-themed party. On Saturday, after a talk on the property industry, Susan and Jason apparently slipped away to have lunch, returning early enough to attend a gala dinner.
The final hours of Susan’s life were apparently spent running after her husband who was hanging out in another estate agent’s hotel room late at night.
Wearing her dressing gown, Susan arrived at the room of Brendan Miller, the head of the Sotheby’s Sea Point office. As was reported previously Jason was sitting on the bed next to Jolene Alterskye, the woman with whom he’d apparently been having an affair for several months.
Before any of his colleagues could pour him a drink he left the room and chased after Susan, he claims.
According to Jason’s statement, they had a heated exchange and as she was following him she fell, hurting her foot and cutting her left eyebrow.
Jason claims he and Susan then went to bed and that she woke up at about 7am, still angry, and went into the bathroom. He claims she hanged herself behind the door of their hotel room with the cord of a hair iron.
Her mysterious death
On Friday 5 August 2017, Stellenbosch community newspaper Eikestadnuus reported that a murder investigation had been opened in connection with Susan’s death. A few weeks later Jason was arrested at his Joburg home.
State pathologist Dr Akmal Coetzee-Khan testified in court that Susan had been assaulted and strangled. According to his sensational evidence, she died around 5.40am, not after 7am as Jason claims. The pathologist believes there was a physical fight and that the scene had been manipulated to make it look like a suicide.
Among other things, he found marks corresponding with a thumb on the right side of her neck, and with stretched-out fingers on the left side of her neck. There was also a bloodied swelling at the back of her head which could have been the result of her head being forcibly pressed down on a hard surface.
Coetzee-Khan told the court Susan swallowed about 100ml of her own blood after coughing it up and testified there was bleeding at the tip of her tongue, characteristic of someone who’d been strangled.
Bleeding at her nose might indicate something had been placed over her mouth or nose.
Susan had three broken ribs and a small bone in her thyroid was fractured. Blood of different colours – indicating that trauma occurred before death – was found in her intestines and, according to the pathologist, chafing on her body indicated she’d been pulled over a rough surface.
He also testified that blood, which drains to the lowest part of the body after death, indicates Susan had died in a horizontal position. The inference is that she wasn’t hanging but rather lying on her back when she died, the court heard. There also weren’t any signs of friction from the electrical cord found around her neck, according to him. He believes the mark from the electrical cord was caused after death. Coetzee-Khan testified that there was blood in the hotel room, especially on the left-hand side of the bed, on a pillow and on the duvet and sheets. He says it’s feasible, therefore, that Susan died in the bedroom and that her body was moved to the bathroom.
Dr Reggie Perumal, the pathologist appointed by Jason’s legal team, also concluded that Susan died due to strangulation but he didn’t specify its cause, nor did he record several of Susan’s injuries or say what had caused them.
According to Coetzee-Khan, Susan had old bruises that had been healing. These suggested a woman who was being abused, he said.
Susan swallowed about 100ml of her own blood after coughing it up