Girl discovers strangled sister
2008-10-06 08:05
Pretoria - A nine-year-old girl tried in vain on Sunday morning to wake her 11-year-old sister, who was allegedly raped and then strangled to death.
The body of Jeanine Kayser, 11, was hidden under a blanket and a duvet on her bed in her home in Onverwacht outside Cullinan, east of Pretoria.
Her sister, Chantelle, found the body when she climbed on Jeanine's bed to get something down from a cupboard.
The children had been left in the care of their stepfather, Jan Jafta, while their mother, Rozan Jafta, 29, was recovering in Steve Biko Academic Hospital (formerly Pretoria Academic Hospital) after an operation.
Jeanine stayed home alone with her stepfather on Saturday evening while Chantelle went to sleep over at the house of her mother's brother, just down the road.
'I tried to wake her'
On Sunday she went back to the Jaftas' house to get clean clothes. "When I got on Jeanine's bed, I felt I was stepping on something and I got down.
"I lifted the blankets and saw Jeanine lying there. I tried to wake her, but she did not want to open her eyes. Then I listened to her heart, but her heart was not beating," Chantelle said.
She ran to her stepfather, who was sitting outside the house, shouting, "Jeanine doesn't want to wake up!"
Chantelle then ran to call her grandmother, Hannetjie Masemola, who lives nearby.
"The child was shouting: 'Granny, granny, Jeanine doesn't want to wake up and her heart isn't beating'," Masemola said.
She and Chantelle rushed back to the house, where she found Jeanine's body.
"My grandchild was raped and then strangled. I suspect she knew the person who did this, that's why he killed her," Masemola said, crying.
Angry crowd
Pastor Jan Babu said the news spread quickly and within a short while a group of angry people had gathered in front of the house, armed with stones and weapons.
"I calmed them down. Then we prayed together and waited for the police," Babu said.
Cedric Marais, headmaster of Onverwacht Primary School, also came to the house after several of his pupils had called him.
"The way in which Jeanine died is unacceptable and ugly. We have lost a top achiever, a child who was always obedient and participated in everything," Marais said.
Marais is making arrangements for Chantelle to get counselling.
When Jeanine's body was carried from her parents' home, several people started crying. "No, no. They have hurt the poor child," said an elderly woman, sobbing.
An angry young woman said: "The guilty person should be hanged, or we will kill him ourselves."
No arrests
Members of the police forensics team took away a blanket, clothing and other evidence for tests.
Police spokesperson Johannes Jafta, said at this stage there are no suspects and no one has been arrested in connection with Jeanine's murder. He added, however, that someone close to the family and three other men had been questioned.
Babu and members of the family went to Steve Biko Academic Hospital on Sunday to tell Jeanine's mother about the murder.