Family shooting - no foul play suspected
2011-04-18 22:50
Bloemfontein - Police said on Monday that no foul play was suspected in the shooting death of a Richmond farmer and his family.
Lieutenant Colonel Hendrik Swart said police were called after one of the farmer’s employees came across the bakkie on a gravel road just after 06:00 on Monday morning, about 1km from the farm.
David Theron, 58, and his 39-year-old wife Cornel, as well as their two daughters, Mikayla, 8, and Cara, 6, were all found with head wounds.
David was found in the driver's seat with a .357 revolver in his lap.
"It is suspected that all four persons were killed with the revolver found in the bakkie," Swart said.
Police discovered the girls hidden under a pile of jackets on the front passenger seat.
Cornel's body was found under a pile of clothes on the back of a bakkie.
A spokesperson for the family, Linda Theron, confirmed that Cornel was seriously ill.
She did not want to go into detail as to what was wrong, except to say that she didn’t have cancer.
Post mortems would take place in Kimberley this week.
