Gruesome find at beach flat

2005-05-26 08:42

East London - Repeated trouble with creditors and a bad drug habit were cited on Wednesday as two of the possible reasons for the triple murder of a close-knit family and the alleged suicide of a well-known businessman.

Alex Ritchie, manager of the Kennaway Court apartment building on the Esplanade beachfront, was greeted by a gruesome sight when he broke down the door of the two-bedroom flat on the 7th floor where Dave Blasko, 50, his wife, Barbara, 45, and their daughter, Shannon, 19, lived. The building is next to the Regent Hotel when the Nepad conference started on Wednesday.

Shannon's boyfriend, Paul Vermeulen, a former owner of the well-known Shenannigans restaurant on the beachfront, was lying on his side in a pool of blood in the lounge with a 9mm pistol. The flat was a mess and filled with smoke from a burnt-out candle that had set a piece of paper alight.

Ritchie called the police and they found Barbara Blasko's body under a blanket in the passage.

Shannon's body was on her bed, also covered with blankets, and her father's body lay on the floor next to her. All four died of a single bullet wound to the head, said Inspector Stephen Marais, police spokesperson.

Motive unknown

The motive for the murder is unknown. A cleaner in the building said she saw Vermeulen carry one of Blasko's computers to his car on Tuesday morning. He was accompanied by two foreigners.

Ritchie told the cleaner that Blasko, a part-time computer lecturer at Fort Hare, wanted the computer repaired. The information of all the owners of the flats was on that computer since Blasko was the chairperson of the body corporate.

Friends of Vermeulen and Shannon alleged that both were serious cocaine users. Police allegedly found small plastic bags, in which cocaine is sold in grams, in the flat. Sources say Vermeulen could also have been in debt with drug dealers.

Vermeulen was also involved in a court case for unpaid rent for Shennanigans, which closed down earlier this year.

Employees at the Border Rugby Union, where Vermeulen and Shannon owned the The Bulldog Inn for the past three months, said debt collectors looking for Vermeulen arrived at the bar on Wednesday morning.

It is not known when the murders took place, but the Blaskos were last seen alive on Tuesday morning.

- Die Burger