Murder victim begged family for help
2013-01-22 09:14
Cape Town - The day before Charmaine Mare, 16, was brutally
murdered and her body chopped up and burnt, she sent an SMS to her family
begging them for help.
Mare was staying with a friend and the friend’s mother in
Cape Town but both then left on a cruise vacation and Mare was alone in the
house with the friend’s mother’s boyfriend, it was earlier reported.
Die Burger reported that Mare sent an SMS to her mother saying a man wanted to force her
to have sex with him.
"Her mother said she should lock herself in her room
where she was sleeping,” said family friend Zirk Jansen.
It was the last time the family heard from the girl, who had
come to Cape Town from Kriel to try and make a better life for herself.
Mare’s badly-burnt torso was found in a field in
Kraaifontein and could be identified only by a tongue ring and a neck chain.
Her arms were found in the garage of the house where she staying and her legs
were found in an abandoned building in Somerset West.
Johan de Jager, 48, was arrested for the murder and will
appear in court soon.
The girl’s emotional mother said the family had been
devastated by her death.
"Her friend said to her to come to the Cape with her.
There they wanted to try to get her into a school. If they couldn’t do that,
they would help her find a job. Now my child is dead,” said a distraught
Katrina Mare, 53.
