Dad's killing is hell - son

2005-09-13 22:30

Jeanette Clark

Jan Kempdorp - "I will always remember it. He had such huge, strong hands, but when I touched them, they were ice-cold."

So said Andrew Martinson on Tuesday after his 75-year-old father, Charlie, had been found murdered on his farm near here.

Martinson had farmed in the district for 48 years.

The police didn't want Andrew to see his father's body.

Captain Tony Modise said the dead man's hands and feet had been tied and the killers had put a large armchair on his body.

It seemed as if he had been hit on the head several times with a heavy object.

Andrew said: "If he had died in any other way, I would still have been able to accept it. But not like this. This is hell.

"I visited him on Monday night to try to persuade him to buy a house in town, but he didn't want to move,"

Saw the body on the bed

"My mother died less than two years ago, and her memories were still alive in the house."

Charlie Martinson's body was found by his domestic worker, Martha Daniels, 60, who came in to do chores twice a week.

Andrew had dropped her off at the farm about 07:30.

A shocked Daniels said on Tuesday: "When I arrived, I noticed that the door was unlocked, but I thought he had unlocked the door before going back to bed."

"I went to look for him, because I'm not used to him lying in so late," she said.

The bedroom was strewn with papers and Daniels saw the body on the bed.

She sent another worker, Dasco Kleinbooi, to the neighbours, Ronel and Ters Boshoff, to call the police. Boshoff called and told Andrew Martinson.

It is still not known how many people were involved in the killing.

Still has to tell grandmother

They apparently put furniture, a DVD-player, an M-Net decoder and a television set in Martinson's white Colt bakkie, registration BRJ 982 NC, and left.

Andrew said: "My younger brother, Jaco, and I bought him the bakkie less than a year ago.

"I still have to tell my grandmother, who is 99 years old (that her son had been murdered). It is like a mountain ahead of me," he said.

- Volksblad