Gran guns down son, smothers grandson
2011-04-20 09:20
Pretoria - A Centurion grandmother on Tuesday afternoon allegedly gunned down her son
and smothered her 2-year-old grandson.
She
then presumably slit her wrists and tried to hang herself over the bath.
A security guard at the Valley View luxury complex in Kosmosdal, Samrand, made
the gruesome discovery and saved the woman's life. The
complex was opposite the Blue Valley golf estate.
The
woman was flown to a local hospital via Netcare helicopter - she was in a
critical condition, said Netcare 911 spokesperson Jeff Wicks.
Police
spokesperson captain Thomas Mufamadi said the bodies of the 30-year-old man and
his two-year-old son were found on Tuesday afternoon in their home in
Pimpinella Close.
The man was shot in the head. A cartridge was found near his body, said
Mufamadi.
According to reporters, the man was found dead in his bed while the boy was
found dead in his pram. The pram stood in the passage near the bathroom.
Mufamadi said he couldn't confirm the child's cause of death because he had no
"visible injuries". Reporters learnt reliably that he had presumably
been smothered.
The grandmother was found
in the bath, a
few metres from where the little boy was discovered,. The woman, identified by residents as Carrie Chanpappas,
presumably slit her wrists and tried to hang herself in the bath after
murdering her son and grandson.
Chanpappas,
whose age was not known, was a member of the upmarket complex's governing body.
The
security guard, who apparently heard the shot, found Chanpappas and removed the
rope from her neck, laying her down in the bath. This was where paramedics
found her.
Residents of the complex, who didn't want to be named, said the mother of the
boy "just dropped him there because she wanted nothing to do with the
child".
"She (Chanpappas) had to raise the child," said a resident.
Reporters couldn't confirm this allegation by late on Tuesday night.
Mufamadi said a case of murder was being investigated. It was not known if
police had found the firearm with which the man had been shot.
This
incident was the third family murder in less than a week.
In the other two family murders reported on by Beeld earlier this week, warrant
officer Daniël Olifant, 40, on Friday night in Bloemfontein shot dead his
mistress, Shirley Scharneck, 39, and her two children Zanele, 9, and
Zwelinzima, 5, before killing himself.
Their wounded brother, Thami, 13, later died in hospital.
On
Monday the bodies of David Theron, 58, and his wife Cornel, 39, and daughters
Mikaila, 8, and Cara, 6, were found in his bakkie near their farmhouse outside
Richmond in the Northern Cape.
Theron presumably shot all four in the head.
