Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
The day that nearly cost a runner her life
As she trained for the Two Oceans marathon a man viciously attacked her from behind
NUKU VAN COLLER had been jogging alone on a runner’s path close to UCT, training for the Two Oceans marathon. “I was feeling so good and healthy, and thought about how fortunate I was,” she said this week.
Suddenly, a man came from behind and knocked her out.
Van Coller, who lost consciousness, remembers little of what happened afterwards. But a few days later she learnt the man had stabbed her 17 times in the head and three times in the lungs, and had broken her jawbone.
“He must have left me for dead. Doctors said he had tried to scalp me,” she said of the events of that afternoon 10 years ago on December 17, 2004.
“I didn’t really know what struck me. I can’t remember any pain. That’s a miracle.”
She woke up in the Christi- aan Barnard Memorial Hospital after two days in a coma, and spent two weeks in the intensive-care unit. She was moved to a ward, where she remained until she was discharged the following year.
But in the few moments of consciousness during the attack, Van Coller saw her attacker’s face, and heard him scream at her. She also remembers waking up in a bushy patch, crying for help, and a man coming to her aid.
She learnt later that her rescuer was Bradley Borliss, and that he had signalled to two tow- truck drivers on the nearby M3 highway. They called the paramedics and the police, who arrived on the scene within minutes.
Four months after the attack, Van Coller invited the three men for drinks at her house and presented them with bouquets of fruit, chocolates and nuts to thank them.
“Bradley told me he had to go for counselling from the shock of finding me in such a state,” she said.
Although the police had launched a helicopter and deployed sniffer dogs in the area, the suspect eluded them.
And up to today, he has not been brought to book.
“The initial investigation was intense. I believe the police tried really hard. Afterwards they came to visit me in hospital, and later they came to see me at my home a few times.
“The police advised me that the crime was probably committed by a gang member who had brought along fellow gang members to watch so he could get promotion in the gang.”
Van Coller acknowledged problems police faced in identifying a suspect, and said she didn’t blame them. However, her husband, Chris van Coller, believed they could have done a much better job.
Van Coller, who works as an assistant ombudsman for longterm insurance, said: “The attack was completely random. And there are so many gangs. Where in the world would you start without fingerprints? There was no lead.”
Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said Claremont police had collected evidence on the scene, placed an article and sketch of the attacker in a local newspaper and offered a reward.
However, “there were no leads available to trace and identify a possible suspect”, he said. As a result, the docket was closed, Van Wyk added.
Van Coller said she carried few emotional scars from the attack, “although I’m very grateful to be alive”.
“I’m not cross or sad or scared. I just don’t want him to do the same to anybody else.”
She believes one of the reasons she has coped so well is “because I didn’t experience the attack”. She was unconscious throughout.
Another reason is her atti- tude: “Why must my life change because somebody else did something to me?” asks Van Coller.
Instead of being bitter, she’s grateful for all the support she received from her husband, her sisters, and the many other relatives and friends, along with people she didn’t even know.
“Anonymous parcels of food arrived, bouquets of flower just arrived. Prayer meetings were held. Chris said he prayed the hardest. I had the most wonderful support.”
There were many bald patches on her head after her hair was shaved for her wounds to be treated, “so a friend was so kind as to bring me different kinds of hats”.
Her daughter Cayla, five at the time of the attack, was with a babysitter when her mother was attacked.
The now 15-year-old says she worried her mother might never come home again, like that afternoon.
“As a result, we became very close. We are still very close, although she’s fine now.”
“Children are resilient,” Van Coller said.
On February 1, 2005, a month and a half after the attack, Van Coller had recovered to such an extent that she went back to her then job at the Pension Funds Adjudicator.
And in March that year, she started running on the same path again by herself, and has been running there ever since. Today, she has run that same road hundreds of times.
“I love running. It gives me the space to meditate, to think a bit,” said Van Coller.
● Anyone with details of an unsolved case they want featured in the Weekend Argus should call 021 4884527 or e-mail us on wknews@inl.co.za henriette.geldenhuys@inl.co.za