Murder, rape: hunt for monster

Mutilated mom heard son’s pleas

LIMPOPO police have launched a nationwide hunt for a man who forced three men to gang-rape and mutilate his estranged wife at gunpoint.

The vicious attack occurred on Tuesday when the 51-yearold Modimolle meat distributor and former Bloemfontein sheep farmer phoned his estranged wife, aged 43, and asked her to meet him to try to resolve their differences.

They’d been married for four months before becoming estranged.

Modimolle Detective Commander Colonel Simon Mogale confirmed that the suspect had asked his wife, who had a protection order against him, to go to a house he was renting to speak about their divorce.

When the woman, who cannot be named because of the nature of the attack, walked into the house, she was overpowered. A plastic packet was pulled over her head and she was dragged to the bedroom of the rented house and tied to a bed where, according to family friends, three men were forced at gunpoint to rape her.

The men, who are also on the run, were allegedly hired as casual workers by the man, who apparently wanted them to kill his wife.

It was during the rape that at least two of the men were given knives, pliers, a grinder and other sharp instruments and told to hack off her breasts.

The woman’s son, a secondyear computer science student at the University of Pretoria, was shot after walking in on the horrific scene.

According to his father, who cannot be named as it would identify the mother, the 19-yearold was phoned by his stepfather and told to come to the house. Suspecting something was wrong, he went to his stepfather’s house with a friend.

“They had no idea of the hell that was taking place inside. When my son got there, his stepfather gave his friend money and told him to go to a nearby garage to buy cooldrinks. The moment my boy walked into the house, he was attacked. His mother, who miraculously survived, said she could hear our boy pleading for his life.

“He kept on crying: ‘Nee, Oom, asseblief moenie skiet nie’ (No uncle, please don’t shoot).

“As he was crying, his mother said she heard three gunshots, and that was it.”

The father said that when his son’s friend returned, he found the mother on the bed and her son dead on the floor. He said his son had had a brilliant future before him, had just received a bursary after obtaining 13 distinctions in 18 of his first-year subjects and had been offered a teaching post in computer science at the university.

“My boy loved life. He was a happy child who never said a bad word about anyone,” he said.

The photographer who took the estranged couple’s wedding photos said their relationship had been strained.

“They were married for four months and separated in February. Her husband had problems with her son and her parents,“he said.

The photographer said the woman, her daughter and parents had been moved by the police to a safe house for fear that her estranged husband would attack her again.

They had no idea of the hell taking place inside the house