Cops probe 'hit' on CT journo
2006-06-15 06:29
Eduan Roos and Borrie la Grange
Johannesburg - A Cape journalist was shot dead in mysterious circumstances in her rental car at the side of a Johannesburg highway on Tuesday, while she was presumably phoning for help on her cellphone.
Megan Herselman, 49, route director of Beeld's sister magazine Drive Out, had landed in Johannesburg shortly before to market the magazine this weekend at the Outdoor Expo.
Her grieving sister and co-editor of New Media Publishing (NMP), Naomi Herselman, said on Wednesday that Megan had phoned a friend at about 20:40 to tell her she'd lost her way to the guest house in Glenferness, near Kyalami, where she would have stayed.
Herselman landed at about 19:35 at Johannesburg International Airport and had been driving along the N1 south before she was killed.
15 calls
"The woman friend gave Megan directions and said she mustn't stop under any circumstances.
"Megan tried to phone her friends about 15 times, probably because she realised something was amiss or someone was following her," said her sister.
"None of the people Megan phoned knew Johannesburg and could have told her where to go. It's very strange.
"Her cellphone which she might have been using to phone someone, was shot to pieces and afterwards she was shot three more times through the window."
Police said Herselman had stopped next to the highway about 100m before the Rivonia Road offramp. It is still not clear why she'd stopped.
'Planned attack'
"She was shot four times from a short distance through the passenger window of the car," said police spokesperson Sefako Xaba.
He said the motive for the murder was not clear as nothing had been stolen from Herselman.
"We're investigating the possibility that it might have been a planned attack and that she might have known her attacker or attackers."
A police source close to the investigation said Herselman might have tried to put the car into gear during or soon after the shots.
The car had left the road about 30m further on and landed in a ditch opposite a building site.
Herselman was already dead when police arrived at the scene after a passerby had phoned them.
As far as could be determined, the car did not have mechanical problems.
Sensible'
Her sister described her as "a very sensible woman who wouldn't just stop for anyone".
"We still don't know exactly what happened to her, but it's clear something very strange was on the go and she might have felt her life was in danger," she said.
Drive Out publisher Andrew Nunnaley said as far as they knew she was en route from the airport directly to the guest house.
"She would have returned to her house in Sea Point on Monday, directly after the expo."
Herselman and three other people survived an emergency landing in a light aircraft in the sea at Gordon's Bay in the Western Cape in June 1998.
Herselman, whose shoulder was crushed during the accident, and the unconscious pilot were helped by another passenger to the shore about 50m away.
"It's heartbreaking that she survived that disaster only to be murdered now like this," said her sister.