Couple's killers took nothing
2008-07-02 09:05
Gloria Edwards
Johannesburg - An elderly cancer patient and his wife have been shot on the N12 on the East Rand - without their attackers robbing them of their vehicle or any of their possessions.
Willem Ras, 66, who also had Parkinson's disease, and his wife, Yvonne, 64, were attacked near Eldorado Park on Saturday night.
Willem was first shot in his back and then shoved out of the moving car. He died on the road.
Yvonne was shot in the neck and left for dead in the vehicle. She died from her wound in Garden City Hospital in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The couple were on their way back to their flat in Alberton at about 22:00 after having visited their only child, Mathie Potgieter, 37, and their two grandchildren in Randfontein.
Police said the killers presumably pulled the couple off the road somewhere and jumped into the car with them.
Was still breathing
The attackers then probably forced them to drive to the N12 highway in Eldorado Park where they shot Willem in the back near the Boundary Road bridge and threw him from the car.
Captain Phillemon Khorombi of Eldorado Park police said they found the vehicle at 12:35 on Sunday.
"Mrs Ras was found with a bullet wound to the neck. She was still breathing and was taken to hospital."
Mr Ras's body was found near the car.
"It doesn't look like anything was stolen."
Mathie Potgieter said she could not understand how her parents could be killed for nothing.
Their jewellery, cash and other belongings were found in the vehicle and given to her.
Bitter
"Even my father's cross and necklace of real gold that my mother gave to him 25 years ago was still around his neck."
Potgieter only realised something was amiss on Sunday morning after her grandmother, Corrie Wijnbreek, 95, let her know that her parents had not arrived home.
Shortly after her mother's death on Tuesday, Mathie said she was bitter towards the killers who had left her "an orphan". Her daughters Corli, 10, and Carmen, seven, were traumatised.
- Beeld