Wounded wife crawled to toilet

2006-06-21 11:39

Buks Viljoen

Carolina - Babs Boshoff, 61, is recovering in hospital after an emergency operation to her hand, which was badly hurt in a bloody attack on her and her husband's farm in Carolina on Monday.

Thys Boshoff, died at about 18:30 on Monday on the farm Boesmanspruit about 50km from Carolina after armed robbers fired two shots with a shotgun through the back door of the house.

He was hit in the chest and apparently died immediately.

His wife Babs's left hand was nearly severed by a bullet while they were desperately trying to bar the door of their farmhouse against armed robbers.

His wife, Babs, 61, was hit in the left hand, nearly severing half of her hand with four fingers attached to it.

The attack on the couple was the fourth armed robbery in a week in a 10km-radius from the Moedig Shool (Thokozani), which was in the news recently after pupils had to gather information about the farms in the area for a task.

'Looked like a battlefield'

Lewis Ellerman was visiting the Boshoff's on Monday night. Shortly after he had left, Boshoff went outside to feed the dogs. He saw two masked men. "He fled into the house and his wife tried to help him bar the door," said colonel Nic Uys, commander of the Carolina commando, on Tuesday.

"It looked like a battlefield. There was blood everywhere," said Uys.

The robbers pushed Boshoff's body, which was lying on the kitchen floor at the backdoor, out of the way in order to enter.

They dragged his wife to the bathroom, where they tied her hands to the handle of the bathtub with a piece of nylon rope.

They stole four firearms from the safe before escaping in the couple's bakkie.

Boshoff's wife apparently managed to untie herself and crawled to the telephone to call for help. She was found hiding in a toilet, where she was holding her badly injured hand in a chamber pot.

An emergency operation was done on her hand at Midmed Hospital. Her condition was stable. Police have launched a massive manhunt for the suspects.

While on his way to help the couple, Captain Marius Burger, station commissioner of Machadodorp police, died after his car collided with a truck while he was on his way to help them.

- Beeld