Girl breaks neck fleeing kidnapper
2010-09-06 22:41
Pretoria – A 14-year-old Pretoria girl died when she jumped out of the moving bakkie of a man who had kidnapped her and her 16-year-old friend.
The kidnapper later raped the older girl.
Lazanne Farmer, 14, of Elandspoort High School in Pretoria West, presumably broke her neck when she fell.
“The outside might heal, but I’ll always carry it with me on the inside,” the 16-year-old, who may not be identified, said on Monday.
“When he stopped I thought he was going to ask for directions, but when he pointed the gun at us I knew I was in trouble.”
The two girls were walking on Sunday at about 10:00 from another friend’s house in Elandspoort to the 16-year-old girl’s house in Danville.
In Armstrong Road in Elandspoort a man stopped next to them in a Corsa or Bantam bakkie.
“He pointed his firearm at them and said they must get in if they want to live,” the 16-year-old’s mother said.
The man, aged 27 or 28 with blue eyes, wrinkles around the eyes and wearing a wig, held the door open on the driver’s side and Lazanne climbed in first.
He blindfolded them and drove in the direction of Kwaggasrand.
“Lazanne took off her blindfold in Middle Crescent.
“She saw two women walking down the street, banged against the window and screamed for help. Then she jumped out,” the 16-year-old said.
'One step at a time'
The older girl, who also took off her blindfold then, tried to jump out, but the man pulled her back inside, locked the doors and blindfolded her again.
He left Lazanne where she had fallen and drove on with the 16-year-old. At some stage he stopped near the thick brush next to the Hennops River Road (R511).
The man took off her blindfold, gave her something to drink, took her clothes off and raped her.
Then he cut her shirt into two pieces, gave her the one half to put on and blindfolded her with the other.
He forced her into the vehicle again, drove for a while and stopped. Then he dropped her off and drove away.
The girl ran to a garage nearby where a motorist noticed her at about 14:00 and took her home.
The girl’s mother was furious when she saw her. “I felt if I could get my hands on that man I would do some bad things to him,” said her mother.
“What more can a mother do to protect her children? Why does he take children?”
Henriette Farmer, 29, Lazanne’s sister, said on Monday night the family is “taking it one step at a time”.
“I hope they catch the swine so he can’t take any other people’s children away.”