South Africa - Martin, 55, Theresa, 54, Rudi van Breda, 22, murdered, 26 Jan 2015 #1

[Interested Bystander]

Tracey Stewart‏ @Traceyams 14m14 minutes ago
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Judge Desai also states the obvious whether there was 1 or 2 axes, the one before court was used in the crime @CapeTownEtc #vanbreda

 

[JudgeJudi]

RSBM

Anthony Molyneaux‏ @AJGMolyneaux 37m37 minutes ago

Here are the suspected murder weapons displayed in court.

@TimesLIVE[/QUOTE]

That axe is totally dfferent to the one I've seen ... but I can't post images today.

http://images.enca.com/enca/PHOTO_AXE_201214_0.jpg

 

[JudgeJudi]

Prime, I can't edit, see your images properly as they're covered with a black opaque layer. I Googled "Images van Breda axe" and scrolled down. The link I gave you on the previous page is correct though.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Anthony Molyneaux‏ @AJGMolyneaux 7m7 minutes ago

welcome back. Next witness is up. Bianca van der Westhuizen. Family friend. vdw states that before the murders, she was spending time with Henri as friends.
vdw describes the van Breda family as normal. She had a 'lovely time' with the family.

@TimesLIVE

 

[JudgeJudi]

But now I can see your image. WS is driving me insane.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Anthony Molyneaux‏ @AJGMolyneaux 2m2 minutes ago

vdw states she saw Henri at 17:15 on the day before the murders. Henri took her for ice-cream then dropped her off.
vdw says Henri was completely normal, nothing was out of place with his demeanour.

vdw saw Henri the day after the murders at the police station. She did not answer calls from Henri at 4am & 07:20am.

vdw did not answer due to her having school. She received WhatsApp messages from Henri stating that there was an emergency.
vdw says she does not why Henri called her, she thinks it's because he did not have anyone else to call.

@TimesLIVE

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Anthony Molyneaux‏ @AJGMolyneaux 5m5 minutes ago

vdw now starts to break down when asked a question about Marli. She says Henri & Marli were close. Also says Henri respected Rudi.

defence has no questions for vdw and with that vdw leaves witness stand. Court adjourned for the day until 10am tomorrow.

@TimesLIVE

Tracey Stewart‏ @Traceyams 8m8 minutes ago @CapeTownEtc #vanbreda

Henri and Marli seemed close probably the closest members of family - he admired his brother a lot

 

[Estelle]

Andre van Breda's name is really Cornelius Andries van Breda.

https://www.algoafm.co.za/article/l...a-family-was-close-and-loving-testifies-uncle

 

[JudgeJudi]

Bianca van der Westhuizen will testify next.

Met Henri in January 2014 at a braai in Knysna. She saw him the weekend before murders. She was in Grade 12.

We had started spending time together, we weren't dating, she says.

She describes the family as "very normal".

She sent him a whatsapp message the evening of Monday 26 January

I saw him for the first time the Tuesday (day of the murders) when we went to the police station. Phone on aeroplane mode when she goes to sleep.

Henri phoned her on 27 Jan at 04:24 in the morning. She says she didn't answer the call. He called again at 07:20. Van der Westhuizen says she didn't answer because classes start at 07:30 and the phone was on aeroplane mode.

Saw whatsapps in first period that there was an emergency of some sorts. Replied to him, but he didn't receive them

She tried to call, but it didn't go through or he didn't answer. They didn't speak.

Galloway asks why he would call her. She says she assumes he didn't have anyone else to call.

Van der Westhuizen and Marli went to school together.

She starts to cry.

Henri and Marli seemed close, Van der Westhuizen says.

He admired his brother a lot. They were together in Australia when rest of family was in SA.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-day-9-of-the-van-breda-murder-trial-20170510

 

[Tortoise]

Why did I think she was his girlfriend? Did he describe her as his girlfriend?

 

[PrimeSuspect]

HvB very close with his brother, Rudi. I wonder what went wrong? Did he feel like a disappointment to them? Did his drug taking make him psychotic? This is confusing. I believe this was good and loving family. None of it makes sense.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Why did I think she was his girlfriend? Did he describe her as his girlfriend?

I thought she was too.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Thanks for doing the tweets Estelle and JJ. :tyou:

 

[Estelle]

Why did I think she was his girlfriend? Did he describe her as his girlfriend?

I think the media assumed Bianca was his girlfriend.

 

[Interested Bystander]

Re Bianka. I too was under that impression. I think HvB described her as his girlfriend in his plea hearing but I will have to check.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Only Henri, then a science undergraduate, escaped the furious onslaught with minor cuts — described in medical reports as “superficial” and “self inflicted”. He had waited four hours after the 3am killings before raising the alarm, after trying his girlfriend first.

http://www.news.com.au/world/africa...e/news-story/076c2ddbfd6a3396b5052df6b0ae7ed1

The following was published in June 2016

Danielle and Henri first met in February, at the Capsicum Chef School in Salt River, Cape Town, where they are both studying.

http://www.sabreakingnews.co.za/2016/06/25/henri-van-bredas-girlfriend-convinced-of-his-innocence/

 

[JudgeJudi]

Just to clarify my post above (can't edit), Bianca knew HvB prior to the murders in January 2015. He met Danielle February. As the article was published in June 2016, I'd imagine it was that year and not weeks after the murders.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

It's amazing how the family are standing by HvB. I can't wait for him to take the stand and it's televised, doesn't matter if we can't see him but just to hear him going through his statement. Not one iota of it makes sense. Rudi was attacked first probably because he could fight back. But HvB was the largest male in the house, and he's left with slight nicks and cuts?! There's something seriously amiss with HvB, is he a stupid/evil genius, is there such a thing?

 

[Interested Bystander]

Here you go. HvB definitely refers to Bianka as his girlfriend.

[video=youtube;Yuah3fYrcwU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuah3fYrcwU[/video]

See 15m 58 seconds “I then tried to call my girlfriend Bianka but could not get hold of her”


Tracy Stewart spells Bianca with a "k" and I have therefore assumed that is the correct spelling (probably wrongly). Both forms are used in SA.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Here's the link for the article containing the image of the other axe. This article was published on 20 April 2015, less than 12 weeks after the murders.

http://www.enca.com/south-africa/stellenbosch-axe-attack-survivor-returns-scene-crime

I've read that an axe had been recently purchased and also recently sharpened. As new axes are always sharp when first purchased this is rather odd. Judge Desai asked if there was one or two axes.

As I can't post pics today, if you go to Google images you'll see 3, the one that is green, one that looks black and the one in the image above.

The green one looks very light weight and I'm not sure why an axe of any size would be kept in a pantry.