Guest house murder ‘no farm attack’
Victim’s daughter, police believe it was a hit
A GUEST house owner was shot and killed this week in now what appears to be a targeted hit and not a farm killing or home invasion.
Patricia “Trish” Vause Taylor, 65, who owned Threeways Getaway in Mooi River, was watching TV with her friend Cecilia “Kiki” Dion, 70, on Monday night when two balaclava-clad gunmen entered the house through the bathroom window.
Startled by the appearance of the criminals, all Taylor managed to utter was “hey” when the gunman shot her once in the chest, killing her. Dion was gagged, bound and left for dead.
Traumatised by the ordeal and devastated by the death of her friend, Dion, a Canadian, said they were caught completley unawares.
“I just saw the men come up to us, one of them pointing a firearm against my head. He said, ‘we want money, we want jewellery, we want guns’. I put up my hands immediately and said okay”, said Dion.
She described the horror of being gagged with a cloth and her hands and feet tied with a piece of wire before being dragged into the bedroom where attempts were made to suffocate her with pillows.
Assuming she was dead, the criminals toppled the king-size bed over her, she said.
“I kept thinking the criminals will come back, so I remained in the darkroom for 15 minutes. I prayed to the Lord Jesus to free me while pushing the piece of cloth with my tongue while untying my hands and ankles.
“I called my husband in Zambia and neighbours and the police station,” said Dion, pointing to her bruised wrists and swollen ankles.
Threeways Getaway had been on the market for the past three years. Dion said Taylor had put the guest house in Rosetta up for sale because maintaining the place had become costly.
“We have been friends since I moved here five years ago. We had plans of travelling overseas someday after selling the guest lodge,” she said.
Taylor’s daughter Taryn Newport said she was not convinced that her mother’s death was motivated by robbery.
She said the thieves only took TV sets and left behind laptops and mobile phones before driving away in her mother’s Sports Utility Vehicle, which was later found abandoned in a football field near Mooi River SPCA on Tuesday.
Newport felt strongly that it was a hit organised by someone her mother had known.
“I don’t think it was a robbery. Had it been a farm attack, both ladies would have been dead, which gives me the idea that it was a premeditated murder, because one pointed a gun at my mum’s friend, while my mum could not even say more than ‘hey’ and they shot her in the chest”, said Newport.
She said Taylor’s ashes would be scattered on the river at Threeways overlooking Giant’s Castle, in the southern Drakensberg Mountains.
“Mum had a beautiful spot on the bank of the river. It was therapeutic to her. Whenever she was stressed, she would visit the sacred spot,” she said.
Taylor’s husband Derrick, 61, who lives with their eldest son Jason on the Bluff in Durban described his wife’s murder as senseless.
He said his wife would have turned 65 in May.
The couple had been married for almost three decades.
Their youngest son, Andrew Neilson, who worked at a game reserve in Mpumalanga, said their mother was a strong and resilient woman who kept the family together during hardships.
Thoko Mavis Dlamini, 40, a staff member at the guest house, said she had a strong bond with Taylor.
“I lost a friend and a mother. She often lent me money, and when I paid it back, she would say, no keep it. That was her natural kindness. She was very decent.
“She did not deserve to die like this. I confided in her about everything, from marriage problems, to kids at school. She offered me counselling when I was going through a divorce,” sobbed Dlamini.
A police officer at the scene who asked not to be named, was also of the view that Taylor’s killing looked like a hit rather than a robbery.
“They could have taken whatever they wanted, but only two television sets and a safe were taken. Only a single shot was fired at Taylor’s chest.
“I think it was a hit. It is baffling why the killers left all the other houses to come to this house”, said the policeman.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said a case of murder and armed robbery was being investigated and that no arrests had been made.