Final journey for Jasmin
Outpouring of emotion at service for tiny murder victim
THE roaring sound of revving motorbike engines lingered in the air as friends and family bade farewell to murdered four-year-old Jasmin Lee Pretorius yesterday. The little girl’s uncle, Sarel du Toit, is accused of raping and killing his niece in Brakpan on December 28. He allegedly confessed to the murder.
A bikers’ procession accompanied Jasmin’s body, transported in a small flower-bedecked pink and white coffin, to the Light House Church in Brakpan.
During the emotional service, her family described her as a “loving little spirit”.
Like many at the service, Jasmin’s father, Morné Pretorius, was dressed in pink, the colour of the clothes Jasmin wore when her body was found.
He broke down in tears when he read a poem he had written from his late daughter’s perspective.
“I wish so much you wouldn’t cry today . . . When tomorrow starts without me, please understand an angel came to take me and held my hand,” he read.
Jasmin’s mother, Sasha-Lee Bam, said: “She was a child of fun and colour.” Natalie Niemand, the mother of one of Jasmin’s friends, said Jasmin and her six-year-old sister, Jessica, had been inseparable.
Pastor Colin Bam, Jasmin’s grandfather, took the 500 mourners back to the day Jasmin’s body was discovered.
He said there had been no signs the man accused of her murder could not be trusted.
Jasmin and Jessica had been visiting their father in the flat he shared with his brother, Sarel du Toit, their mother Isabelle du Toit, and Sarel’s boyfriend, Darren Pretorius (no relation to the family) at the time of the murder.
Pretorius had left his daughters in his family’s care on the night of the murder.
When they woke up the next morning, Jasmin was missing.
Her tiny body was found stuffed underneath the mattress of her father’s bed after Du Toit allegedly confessed to murdering her.
“I was sitting on the bed under which she was hidden,” the pastor said at the service.
Police had later advised him not to view the body.
“I could see the policeman had seen something horrific,” he said.
Du Toit returns to the Brakpan Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Jasmin’s body will be cremated in Brakpan today.