'I love you'

2008-07-27 10:06

Durban - Afrikaans teacher Riekie Lotter, 52, often boasted at school about her children. Even as she lay dying on Saturday afternoon with knife wounds to her chest, she told her children she loved them.

A while later, her husband, Johan Lotter, 53, was strangled in his bed.

On Sunday, police arrested Riekie's children, Nicolette, 26, and Hardus, 21, a student.

They claimed at first that their parents had been murdered by men wearing balaclavas. But later, they made confessions to the police, along with Nicolette's boyfriend, Mathew Naidoo, 20.

Shocking details about the murders have surfaced over the past week.

Former music student and bass guitar player Nicolette had met Mathew 15 months ago at a Christian event.

Greed

He had called himself the "third son of God" and convinced the two Lotter children that God and his angels talked to him. The three of them often had Bible study together.

Johan, the manager of a chemical plant, was unhappy about his daughter seeing Naidoo. For a while, he banned Naidoo from the house.

It is suspected that this, as well as greed, could have led to the murders.

The murders were planned thoroughly. The Lotter couple received anonymous, threatening letters and SMS messages six weeks before their deaths - apparently to make it look like someone else wanted to kill the family.

The children also reported two robberies with police, which are suspected to never have taken place.

Poison and pure alcohol was thrown in Johan's whiskey, but he survived.

It is not yet clear what happened on Saturday afternoon in the upmarket Westville house, but it would appear that Riekie was attacked after her husband had gone to bed.

Hardus and Nicolette were in the house and Naidoo waited at a nearby shopping centre. Riekie was shocked half-unconscious with some device. It was also attempted, unsuccessfully, to cause a heart attack by injecting her with syringe full of clean air.

When this would not work, Nicolette went to fetch Naidoo. Riekie was then stabbed several times with a kitchen knife in the chest. Then the sleeping Johan was strangled with an electric cord. In vain he tried to fight back.

After the murders, police found a bizarre letter on the stairs in the house. It read: "...I have done what I said I was going to do... You have three suspects... Nicolette, Hardus, and the boyfriend Mathew. So who is it. If you find out tell me. - read Job 3 vs 16 - 19."

"Pray for us," said Reverend Willem Lotter, brother of the murdered Johan. Three weeks ago, Riekie had apparently asked for advice about her daughter's relationship with Naidoo.

She then told that money had started disappearing from the house.

A colleague described Riekie as a very soft-hearted person. The letters had upset her terribly, she said.

Johan's elderly mother, Bokkie Lotter, died of a heart attack on Tuesday, presumably due to the shock. She did not know that her grandchildren were being suspected. The Lotter couple had another daughter, Christel, who lived in Stellenbosch.

- Rapport