Survivor of axe attack still stable
|Published
Teresa and Martin van Breda. A private memorial service will be held at the Dutch Reformed Church in Moreleta Park in Pretoria on Thursday. Teresa and Martin van Breda. A private memorial service will be held at the Dutch Reformed Church in Moreleta Park in Pretoria on Thursday.
Cape Town - As friends and relatives prepare for the Van Breda family’s private memorial service on Thursday, the 16-year-old girl who survived a brutal attack which left her parents and older brother dead, is still in hospital, her condition unchanged.
The Somerset College pupil was admitted to Vergelegen Medi-Clinic after police arrived at her family’s home on the De Zalze Golf Estate in Stellenbosch on the morning of January 27 and found her with multiple head wounds and a severed jugular.
EMS spokesman Robert Daniels said it was believed the wounds had been caused by an axe. Her father Martin, mother Teresa and older brother Rudi had been killed, while her other brother Henri survived with only a few scratches and bruises.
Ben Rootman, who is acting as spokesman for the family, said on Tuesday morning that the teenager was still in hospital.
“Her condition is stable and she’s not allowed any visitors. Still the same,” he said.
Rootman said a private memorial service for her slain family would be held at the Dutch Reformed Church in Moreleta Park in Pretoria on Thursday.
On Tuesday he said he was not sure if Henri, who is staying with his uncle, would be attending.
This week ENCA released an audio clip of Henri’s emergency call made on the morning of the murders. He is heard telling the operator that his family are all unconscious and bleeding from the head. As he finishes saying this, what sounds like a giggle is audible.
Henri, 20, was questioned by police shortly after the discovery of the gruesome crime scene..
At the time of going to print, police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said no arrests had been made.
Cape Argus