Bizarre family murder saga
Their adopted sister became their stepmom. Now she’s charged with their dad’s murder and their biological mom is behind bars
FAMILY dynamics don’t get much more complicated than this. A little girl is adopted at the age of three by a childless couple, who go on to welcome two biological daughters. All is well for a while – until the parents get divorced. The adopted sister then marries the father, making her sister and stepmom to the biological kids. And then a murder and a cover-up are added to the mix, resulting in a story that’s almost impossible to believe.
But this is exactly the situation grieving sisters Anita Brits and Maryna Roets find themselves in.
Their mother is in jail for defeating the ends of justice, convicted of helping their father’s alleged murderer mislead the police.
That alleged murderer is none other than their adopted sister and stepmom, Cathy van Oudtshoorn (30).
She has yet to stand trial a full two years after the tragedy, prolonging the sisters’ agony.
Cathy has been referred for psychological assessment to determine if she’s mentally and emotionally equipped to be tried for the murder of their dad, Chris van Oudtshoorn (58).
It’s been almost two years since their family was torn apart but for Anita (27) and Maryna (26) the pain of their loss is as raw as if it happened yesterday.
Cathy stole their mom and dad from them, the sisters say.
She’s accused of shooting Chris on 11 April 2016 in their home in Brakpan, east of Johannesburg. Her lawyer has argued in the high court in Pretoria that his client had a moment of insanity at the time of the shooting.
Maryna tells us she and Anita saw their adopted sister during her previous court appearance in February, which they found distressing.
During our interview at Anita and her husband’s home in Brakpan, the sisters hold each other’s hands constantly. They struggle not to cry, especially when they speak about their mother, Jorina van Niekerk (50). She’s Chris’ ex-wife and Cathy’s adoptive mother. “She was pulled into this innocently,” Maryna claims.
Shortly after Chris’ death Jorina and Cathy were arrested. Both were charged with murder but pleaded not guilty in the Brakpan magistrate’s court.
They were granted bail. When the case was referred to the high court for trial, Jorina made a statement saying she’d helped Cathy make it look as if Chris had been the victim of an armed robbery.
In September Jorina was convicted of defeating the ends of justice and sentenced to five years in jail. Cathy pleaded not guilty and her trial was postponed to February this year, when her lawyer managed to persuade the court to have his client referred for psychiatric evaluation.
After being granted bail, Cathy became pregnant with twins. Her due date is about a month before her next court appearance in July.
Cathy’s child from a relationship before she married Chris was in Maryna’s care for 18 months and has since been placed in foster care.
“Cathy should’ve been behind bars for some time now,” Maryna says bitterly.
WHEN Jorin a and Chris got marr ied they strugg l ed to have children and adopted three-year-old Cathy. But three years later Jorina gave birth to Anita, followed a year later by Maryna.
They’ve been close since childhood, the two sisters say. Cathy was the big sister, they tell us.
“It was as if Cathy had different personalities. Sometimes she’d be friendly, other times bad-tempered,” Anita says.
“We often didn’t get along with her,” adds Maryna, who’s also married and lives in Pretoria.
The sisters took it hard when their parents divorced in 2002 – but they were even more devastated when Chris married Cathy in 2007.
“I was livid. I wanted nothing to do with them,” Maryna says.
“It was a huge shock,” Anita agrees.
The two sisters were still at school at the time. They lived with their mother and would visit their dad and Cathy every second weekend.
“It was really hard but it got a bit better as time went on. We still treated her like our sister. My mom also made peace with it,” Anita says.
Then their world fell apart when Chris was murdered.
Jorina, who’d been visiting Chris and Cathy that day, was the one who called Anita. “My child, you have to come – your dad’s been shot!” she said.
“I walked in the front door and saw my dad sitting on the couch,” she says. Chris was dead.
“My husband, Armand, immediately told me to leave the house. But I just wanted to shake him and scream at him to wake up.”
Cathy and Jorina claimed armed robbers had broken into the house and shot Chris and at first the sisters swallowed the story.
But five days following the murder, on the evening after Chris’ funeral, Cathy took a handful of sleeping pills. Maryna and Anita called an ambulance and she was rushed to hospital.
The following day, 17 April 2016, Cathy and Jorina were arrested for murder.
The sisters, who describe their father as a gentle guy, don’t doubt Cathy’s guilt but are baffled about the motive.
“My dad worshipped her,” Anita says. “She had everything she wanted.”
Cathy and Jorina spent a month behind bars before being granted bail. At first Cathy would visit her child once a week at Maryna’s home. “She never wanted to talk about the murder and she visited less and less often.”
Eventually the child was put in foster care.
BEFORE being sentenced Jorina, who’s since separated from her second husband, stayed with Anita. “The murder haunted her. It was as if she couldn’t apologise enough,” Anita says. She apparently told her daughters she’d helped Cathy mislead the police because she felt threatened.
The sisters say they’ve forgiven their
Smother and often visit her on Sundays in the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria. Anita takes her three children to visit their grandmother but she tells them Jorina works at the prison.
“She says she’s glad she told the truth,” Maryna says. “It’s brought her some peace.” And what about Cathy? The sisters answer in unison. “We’ll never forgive her.”
‘My dad worshipped Cathy. She had everything she wanted’