South Africa - Martin, 55, Theresa, 54, Rudi van Breda, 22, murdered, 26 Jan 2015 #3

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Son held after Perth family slaughtered in South Africa axe attack


2901_perthfamily_sp.ashx

Martin van Breda, 55, his wife Theresa, 54, and son Rudi, 22, were found dead at their home.

Three members of a Perth family have reportedly been murdered with an axe at their luxury South African home.
Daughter Marli, 16, is in a critical condition, while another son, Henri, 20, was slightly injured.
South African media have reported the victims were killed with an axe, and son Henri is assisting police with inquiries.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...-perth-family-in-s-africa#bhHgqIUmxzzrrA1M.99

Thread #1
 
On Thursday morning in the High Court in Cape Town‚ prosecutor Susan Galloway asked for video of the crime scene — shot before the deceased had been removed — to be played. This was because in cross-examination “the defence seemed to imply there was tampering with the scene before the photographs were taken”‚ she said.
She wanted it noted that the footage corresponded to the photographs.
.......
Upstairs‚ the full horror: Blood covers the floor‚ then you see the image of mother Teresa van Breda’s feet hanging off the side of the staircase. Dressed in a spaghetti-string top and white underwear‚ she lies there lifeless.
......
Rudi’s body lies on the floor in a pool of blood near the little blue bed where the family’s pet dog‚ Sasha‚ used to sleep.
Not far from him‚ with most of his body slumped across the mattress‚ is father Martin.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/20...eo-of-familys-murder-scene-is-played-in-court

Sasha's little blue bed in Rudi and Henri's room, what lie will HvB (Botha) spin to explain her absence from the house?

HvB feigning distress about the video being shown, bloody pathetic! I think he has no regrets or remorse about their deaths.
 
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Websleuths’ (WS) Etiquette & Information

Thread #2

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ajgmolyneaux?lang=en

https://twitter.com/traceyams?lang=en

https://twitter.com/tammypetersen87?lang=en

https://twitter.com/ewnreporter?lang=en

https://twitter.com/hashtag/vanbreda?lang=en

https://twitter.com/ajnarsee?lang=en

Please continue the discussion here...
 
I suggest trying the first link. It is the webpage where my Google search ended up. The article is the first for me. I hope it is for you too. The Herald Sun is behind a paywall and if you click the second link that is where you will be taken. Like me, the author thinks maybe drugs was the cause of him dropping out of University.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=M...7j69i60l3.395838j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/op...r/news-story/97af4fbfcf5fbc62adf6c1c92cf0bf87

Murder mystery as son stands trial over South African family axe slaughter

Excerpt……..

“But in mid-2014 Henri quit the course for what he would call a “gap year”, and rejoined the family in South Africa, where his parents had returned in 2014 to pursue a new business.

In holiday snapshots, they look like a model family, but neighbours told police of raised voices on the night of the murders.
If he is found guilty, Henri will probably be seen as a charming psychopath, much like the Menendez brothers, but Jansen’s research suggests he dropped out of university after showing signs of disturbed behaviour, possibly aggravated by drugs.
If his sister has recovered enough from brain injuries to recall anything of what led to the attack, she is not saying.
She is living with relatives while she finishes secondary school, but Henri is not.

While on bail, he has moved from rented room to rented room with a girlfriend he met last year at the Capsicum Culinary Studio chef school near Cape Town.

He has since dropped out of that course, too.”
 
Tracey’s video update on this week’s testimony.

“There doesn’t appear to be a strange footprint in the house”.

The defence will be leading evidence from their own well-known shoeprint expert.

“One would have thought that if an intruder had gone to look for a weapon in the pantry that it might have been a bit more disorganised than it seemed to be.

https://twitter.com/traceyams?lang=en
 
“A drop of blood was noted on the door leading from the kitchen to the pantry”.
We can only assume it was HvB’s blood. He ran outside after the attack but left via the back door, so how did it get on the door to the pantry? The question arises, did he come downstairs after the axe attack to get the knife to use on Marli and himself while he still had blood on his hands or arms and it flicked off him onto the door?

“At the foot of the second bed, Rudi lies on the floor with his feet toward the en suite bathroom”.
If we assume Rudi dragged himself from his bed towards the bathroom, his feet should have been furthermost from the bathroom door, not towards it. Perhaps he attempted to stand and fell backwards.

“A shot of the area between the two beds shows the family dog's bed, with blood spatter on the mat covering the laminated wood floors”.
Sasha’s bed was between the two beds. This is where the attacker stood when he attacked Rudi and/or Martin. It definitely appears that Sasha wasn’t in the bedroom at the time.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/N...an-breda-crime-scene-viewed-in-court-20170608

“The sheets of the bed that Martin lay on, is drenched in blood and a section of the wooden floor, where Rudi lay with his arms folded under him, is full of smeared blood. A pair of blue sneakers is placed close to Rudi in the blood on the ground”.
If Rudi was crawling towards the bathroom, it seems strange that his arms are folded underneath him.
It would be interesting to know if the blood spatter expert checked to see if the shoes appear to have been placed on top of the blood or whether it ran underneath the shoes from Rudi’s body.


http://www.you.co.za/news/de-zalze-...died-bodies-reveal-the-horrors-of-that-night/
 
I hadn’t read this article before on Dr Tiemensma’s testimony but it’s an excellent example of Botha’s ruthless and appalling tactics.

Dr T said she found it interesting that the plea statement contained so much detail as a person with a concussion would likely have remembered much less than that.

This infuriated Botha who then accused Galloway of ambushing and disadvantaging HvB. He told Desai it had turned into a trial by omission.

Botha said he said he hadn’t been privy beforehand to the statements that Dr T would be making in court.

This angered Galloway who said‚ "With respect my lord‚ Mr Botha has a copy of both reports‚ of the plea statement‚ and of Dr Albertse's report and that is all my witness is referring to."

Botha said she was "amplifying" parts of those reports‚ but Desai said she was entitled to do so.

Then‚ during a very heated exchange‚ Desai reprimanded Botha, saying‚ that the word "ambushed" was inappropriate and harsh‚ and that "there has not been an iota of suggestion at this stage that [you] have been ambushed".

Desai told Botha that if he genuinely felt he had a case that he had been "ambushed"‚ he would adjourn for however much time he needed to put a case forward that this had happened.

Botha said they could continue.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/20...an-Breda-likely-‘self-inflicted’‚-court-hears
 
I hadn’t read this article before on Dr Tiemensma’s testimony but it’s an excellent example of Botha’s ruthless and appalling tactics.

Dr T said she found it interesting that the plea statement contained so much detail as a person with a concussion would likely have remembered much less than that.

This infuriated Botha who then accused Galloway of ambushing and disadvantaging HvB. He told Desai it had turned into a trial by omission.

Botha said he said he hadn’t been privy beforehand to the statements that Dr T would be making in court.

This angered Galloway who said‚ "With respect my lord‚ Mr Botha has a copy of both reports‚ of the plea statement‚ and of Dr Albertse's report and that is all my witness is referring to."

Botha said she was "amplifying" parts of those reports‚ but Desai said she was entitled to do so.

Then‚ during a very heated exchange‚ Desai reprimanded Botha, saying‚ that the word "ambushed" was inappropriate and harsh‚ and that "there has not been an iota of suggestion at this stage that [you] have been ambushed".

Desai told Botha that if he genuinely felt he had a case that he had been "ambushed"‚ he would adjourn for however much time he needed to put a case forward that this had happened.

Botha said they could continue.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/20...an-Breda-likely-‘self-inflicted’‚-court-hears

Desai defnitely has Botha's measure which is very reassuring. I don't think we are likely to see another travesty as was the OP trial.
 
Tracey’s video update on this week’s testimony.

“There doesn’t appear to be a strange footprint in the house”.

The defence will be leading evidence from their own well-known shoeprint expert.

“One would have thought that if an intruder had gone to look for a weapon in the pantry that it might have been a bit more disorganised than it seemed to be.

https://twitter.com/traceyams?lang=en

One would have also thought that an intruder intent on murdering a family would have brought a weapon along with him.
 
One would have also thought that an intruder intent on murdering a family would have brought a weapon along with him.

It's laughable isn't it. And if such an inept intruder did come into the house without a weapon of any sort, why would he even think of going into the scullery to look for a weapon, let alone an axe. It makes me want to tear my hair out.
 
It's laughable isn't it. And if such an inept intruder did come into the house without a weapon of any sort, why would he even think of going into the scullery to look for a weapon, let alone an axe. It makes me want to tear my hair out.

Yes! It beggars belief that the intruders thought path is "Hey so I'm gonna rob some folks, but I won't take a weapon since I'm just robbing them. Oh hang on, now I'm here I think rather than robbing these wealthy folks, I'll go on a murder spree and not steal one solitary thing. Yes! That's the tip! I need a weapon. Oh look here's the scullery, I bet there's a great weapon in there. An axe! What a stroke of luck for my murderous rampage. And look at that, I'll kill everyone in the place (or think I have) except this completely defenseless guy sitting on the loo who is in no way prepared for or has the room to fight back since he's playing on his phone. Nope, I'll take out all the others first. I'll just put some tiny faint scratches on him with a knife. And I'll take my time and make them almost perfectly symmetrical, but then after that I'll suddenly be in such a rush, I leave without any of the robbery themed items I came for even though I can take my time and look for valuables". Uh huh. Seems legit. [emoji849]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I only came into this discussion about three quarters of the way through the last thread - I hadn't been following it up until then, so having missed all the earlier evidence, I've been reading through the last thread from the beginning. Now about half way through.

Wow, the autopsy evidence - how harrowing was that? Those poor, innocent people. It's just so horrible, so sickening, such unimaginable violence. I can see as how everyone who's been following all the way through must want passionately for this guy to be locked up for the rest of his days. I can't imagine how there could be any other possible outcome.

One thing I learned was "OISA." I was reading through and coming across it occasionally and thinking, what's this OISA? I googled it and came up with Office of International Student Affairs, Oregon Interscholastic Snowboard Association - no help there. Then someone said something in which the context was so perfect that it jumped out at me - Only In South Africa! Of course!! :woot:
 
Yes! It beggars belief that the intruders thought path is "Hey so I'm gonna rob some folks, but I won't take a weapon since I'm just robbing them. Oh hang on, now I'm here I think rather than robbing these wealthy folks, I'll go on a murder spree and not steal one solitary thing. Yes! That's the tip! I need a weapon. Oh look here's the scullery, I bet there's a great weapon in there. An axe! What a stroke of luck for my murderous rampage. And look at that, I'll kill everyone in the place (or think I have) except this completely defenseless guy sitting on the loo who is in no way prepared for or has the room to fight back since he's playing on his phone. Nope, I'll take out all the others first. I'll just put some tiny faint scratches on him with a knife. And I'll take my time and make them almost perfectly symmetrical, but then after that I'll suddenly be in such a rush, I leave without any of the robbery themed items I came for even though I can take my time and look for valuables". Uh huh. Seems legit. [emoji849]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Your description of the hapless intruder made me LOL.
 
rsbm & rbbm
Dr T said she found it interesting that the plea statement contained so much detail as a person with a concussion would likely have remembered much less than that.

This infuriated Botha who then accused Galloway of ambushing and disadvantaging HvB. He told Desai it had turned into a trial by omission.

I don't understand what he means by a "trial by omission." I'd be grateful to have to that explained to me.
 
rsbm & rbbm


I don't understand what he means by a "trial by omission." I'd be grateful to have to that explained to me.

My best guess is he means a trial based on evidence they haven't been told about, or been given time and opportunity to prepare a defence for.

He's a desperate man. And so he should be. He was given extra time to prepare his cross-exam and didn't (as far as I can recall) come back and challenge what she said. It seemed to me that his attempts to discredit her failed. I remember reading that he quoted something to her from a book of neurology that was out of date and she had come prepared with a more up-to-date edition of the book which defeated his argument. A most impressive witness.
 
My best guess is he means a trial based on evidence they haven't been told about, or been given time and opportunity to prepare a defence for.

He's a desperate man. And so he should be. He was given extra time to prepare his cross-exam and didn't (as far as I can recall) come back and challenge what she said. It seemed to me that his attempts to discredit her failed. I remember reading that he quoted something to her from a book of neurology that was out of date and she had come prepared with a more up-to-date edition of the book which defeated his argument. A most impressive witness.

Aah ... yes, I see what you mean. Thank you Tortoise! :tyou:

I was actually just reading that - late last night? early this morning? - and yes, he had the 2nd edition and she had the 3rd edition, and she just came across as so authoritative there was no way for him to discredit her. I was reading it thinking, she's made it so clear his injuries were self-inflicted, she's provided the most up-to-date research to back up her expert opinion, it's obvious there was never any intruder. Add to that the later evidence from the shoe print expert that there were no shoeprints of an intruder found in the house, what more does Judge Desai need to rule that the defence has never been able to cast any doubt about the total absence of any evidence of an intruder?

Seems to me if it keeps on like this then it probably doesn't matter how much time or opportunity Botha is given to prepare whatever defence he can come up with. Henri's story was never plausible and is being shown up by experts for the fallacy that it is. I'm just worried about what will happen when they run out of time. Anyway, thank you for explaining Botha's "trial by omission." :gthanks:
 
dd84cdfc89914692b6173e415c075781.jpg


http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/N...-for-day-two-of-the-axe-murder-trial-20170425

I think the wall to her right is where the two blood drips were found, perhaps below the window I pointed out in my last post. They refer to it as the boundary wall but I think it must actually be the wall of the neighbour's house.

She climbs over the gate (goodness knows why as a key was left in the gate) then goes around the back of the house and jumps over the wall by the kitchen back door to come out in the alley on the other side of the house, next to the garage. There is a short video of her jumping over the kitchen wall at the link.
 
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