Susan a suicide risk, court hears

A FORENSIC psychiatrist hired by murder accused Jason Rohde’s defence team has told the Western Cape High Court that the accused’s deceased wife, Susan Rohde, had suffered from major depression, which had significantly increased her risk of suicide.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Larissa Panieri-Peter yesterday testified in the court where Jason Rohde is standing trial after his wife was found dead at the Spier Wine Estate in 2016.

Rohde is accused of strangling his wife and staging her suicide. She was found hanged with an electrical cord from a hook behind the bathroom door of the hotel room they shared.

Asked by defence advocate Graham van der Spuy to share her conclusions with the court, PanieriPeter said that with all the information she had and her interpretation of it, given her understanding of psychiatry, she would say that Susan Rohde had major depression, specifically anxiety distress and mixed mood disorder.

“And that alone increased her risk of suicide, very significantly. What she really wanted to achieve that weekend was that everyone could see that she and her husband were happy and that she would prove to herself that she won, over the mistress,” she said.

Jason Rohde and his wife had a fight about his extramarital affair with a colleague, who was also at the hotel, in the hours leading up to Susan Rohde’s death during a company function.

“My conclusion is that, prior to this crisis, she had a number of vulnerabilities… She naturally didn’t sleep for very long and was a person who had some insecurities.

“She was a perfectionist, she wanted the world to see the good side of her and her family. She did not share things that were painful to her,” Panieri-Peter said.