The Griekwastad Murders by Jacques Steenkamp

Author:Jacques Steenkamp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Struik
Published: 2014-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

17

The postponement

The weekend preceding the final week of the trial, I visited Joe Scholtz on his farm Patrysfontein. I’d spoken with him on numerous occasions, but this was the first time that we found ourselves in such a private and intimate setting, away from anybody who might want to eavesdrop on our conversa­tion. I respected Scholtz. He was a man of principle who had refused to speak to the press until after his testimony. I’d even promised him anonymity at one stage, but he was resolute. During one of my previous conversations with him, which occurred several months after the murders, I mentioned a few interesting facts about the case, such as the bullet hole in the barn door, and he said that although he knew about it, he had not even told his wife. The man was definitely not a blabbermouth.

As the daily newspapers had already written pretty much everything that had happened in court the previous week – I had also tweeted about it – I needed a fresh angle for that Sunday’s newspaper. After a lengthy discussion with my deputy editor, Herman Jansen, we decided that the Steenkamps’ dogs might be something to focus on, as their fate was unknown. We knew that the farmworkers had all been sent packing, but what had happened to the dogs? They were the only “witnesses” on the night of the murders, and I wanted to find out what had happened to them. I could ask Scholtz, as he was familiar with the dogs and had seen them at Naauwhoek shortly after the murders.

Scholtz’s teenage daughter, a friend of Marthella’s, had given her a Jack Russell puppy four months prior to her death. According to Scholtz, Marthella had driven her father insane begging him to fetch the little bitch from Patrysfontein.

“She named the dog Tella and loved it dearly,” said Scholtz.

The dog never left Marthella’s side, but it was killed shortly before her own death when one of the other dogs, a Border Collie, bit it to death. Apart from Tella, the Steenkamps had three Border Collies and another Jack Russell. Scholtz recalled that when he arrived on the crime scene, he couldn’t tell who was more traumatised: the three police officers or the four dogs. He said the officers had stood back to back, nervously pointing their weapons at him, while the dogs ran around with their tails between their legs.

I asked Scholtz how the dogs would have reacted when a stranger approached the yard. I wanted to know whether they were docile animals or aggressive watchdogs, as this could also indicate whether someone other than the Steenkamps had been on the farm that night. If the dogs were docile, then someone could easily have approached the homestead undetected, but if they were aggressive, the Steenkamps would have been alerted to a stranger’s approach.

Scholtz told me that the dogs always barked when someone came near the yard.

“They are excellent working dogs and are extremely alert. That’s why most farmers make use of these types of dogs,” Scholtz explained.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.