Hunter stalked ex and new lover
2008-07-08 22:54
Mafikeng - A professional hunter in North West stalked his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend "like prey" on Tuesday morning and shot them with his hunting rifle.
Chris van Wyk, 48, then drove from where he had left Liezel Botha, 35, and Dewald Reynierse, 42, for dead to his own house, sat down on the couch and shot himself in the right-hand side of his chest with the same firearm.
Before work, Reynierse and Botha left Reynierse's smallholding at the same time, each in their own vehicle.
Van Wyk was waiting for them just before the turn-off to the road between Mafikeng and Zeerust.
Mariki Muller, Botha's mother, said on Tuesday afternoon that her wounded daughter had phoned her before she died.
"I'm shot! Come and help me!" Botha had begged over the phone.
'Like waiting for a buck'
Mariki and her husband, Chris, rushed to the smallholding, but it was too late.
Mariki said: "He shot off her head. It's not nice seeing your child like that. One could see she had tussled with him to take the gun.
"Then he shot her the first time, probably in the stomach or chest."
What exactly had happened was unclear, but Botha's body was found outside her vehicle.
Superintendent Keabaka Moses said one could deduce from the crime scene that Van Wyk was a professional hunter.
"He must have been hiding in the veld. There was no way they could've seen him. His clothes were the same colour as the grass.
"It's like waiting for a buck."
A telescope had been fixed to the rifle.
Reynierse, whose double-cab bakkie had been ahead of Botha's car, was shot the first time through the window on the driver's side. He was hit in the right side of his chest.
He was then struck in the right ear from a shorter distance, said Moses.
'Stormy' relationship
Reynierse's son (whose name and age was not known at the time of publishing) from his former marriage had been sleeping in the house about 100m away when his father was shot.
The shots didn't wake him. His two older sisters had slept over at friends' houses the previous night.
A few weeks ago, Botha ended her relationship of about 10 years with Van Wyk.
Botha's mother described the relationship as "stormy".
At the house that Van Wyk had been renting on a smallholding outside Buhrmannsdrift and where he shot himself, his brother, Eric, said on Tuesday that what had happened was "a very big shock" to him.
The brothers had spoken on the phone for a long time on Monday and Eric had encouraged Chris.
Wanted to be on his own
"I'm terribly sorry for the families who suffered losses," said Eric. "We had found work for him in Botswana and he was to have gone for an interview this week.
"He just wanted to get away for a bit and be on his own," said Eric.
Botha had visited Chris on Monday but no one was sure why she had done so.
Van Wyk has two adult children from a previous marriage and Botha has a 15-year-old son.