Mom listens as man is strangled
2003-03-10 23:44
Bloemfontein - Police were by late on Monday hot on the heels of the suspected killers of two bosom friends who were strangled on a smallholding outside the city.
Captain Francois Laux of the serious violent crimes unit said police just missed the suspects at a shebeen outside the city.
Dolf Lloyd, 69, and his friend and neighbour Jan Zandberg, 71, were attacked on a smallholding in Estoire outside the city about 09:00 on Monday morning. They were strangled to death with wire. Lloyd's mother-in-law Magriet Smit was left for dead.
The two families would have left for their annual holidays in two weeks' time.
Zandberg had been overhauling his car for the journey. As was his custom, he went to the Lloyds' home, where the two men often did carpentry together.
When he arrived, Lloyd and Smit had already been attacked.
The friends' bodies were found lying next to each other in the dining room. The hands of one of them were bound to his throat, evidence of his struggle to escape strangulation.
The two widows, Zinobia Lloyd and Babs Zandberg, arrived at the scene of the murder together.
Left for dead
Lloyd's mother-in-law, Magriet Smit, 79, was overpowered in the bathroom. Her hands were tied with wire and a towel was fastened over her face in order to suffocate her.
Her dog Shoeba was strangled with wire when he tried to come to her rescue.
Speaking from her hospital bed, she told of hearing the death cries of her son-in-law.
"It was the cruellest, most horrible experience to go through. They wanted to kill me."
The wire had cut deep wounds into her wrists.
"A man grabbed my hands and held them behind my back. They pressed a knife against me. The man said: 'You are going to die today.' They were looking for money. When I told them I had none, one shouted that I was lying, and they threw me against the floor.
"They used a pair of pliers to twist the wire around my wrists. They tied a towel with wire around my mouth. It hurt."
Smit had moved to Bloemfontein from Winburg a month ago because her children feared for her safety.
Angle grinder
The attackers used an angle grinder to open a safe. They fled with cash, a pistol and two cell phones.
The attackers' bloodied clothes were found in a nearby house where they had apparently changed into clean clothes.