Shattered Monay can't stop crying
2010-09-30 22:52
Johannesburg - The murdered accountant whose 6-year-old daughter spent hours waiting next to his body, was wounded in the same house seven years ago.
The robber who was arrested at the time was released last year after serving a prison sentence for attempted murder.
"It's possible that he came back to kill my husband," Coral Mouton, 35, said about the murder of her husband Christo, 54, on Thursday afternoon.
Mouton was wounded by robbers in the same house in Three Rivers, Vereeniging, in March 2003.
During that incident he managed to shoot one of the robbers, and the wounded man was arrested.
Police spokesperson Shado Mashobane said this possibility "cannot be ignored or proven".
"We're following up on all leads."
Making a mess
The Moutons' daughter, Monay, spent ten hours sitting next to her father's body after he was shot in the heart on Tuesday night.
Mrs Mouton, also an accountant, was in Durban on business at the time of the incident.
Monay waited next to her father's body until the domestic worker arrived the next morning at 07:30 and called the police.
According to Mrs Mouton, Monay was in bed next to her father when he was shot.
"She says she didn't hear the shot. She was woken by the three robbers who asked her for the safe keys.
They went through the house and rummaged around in files in our home office.
"Monay tried to wake my husband and begged the robbers to phone me, but they refused.
She later asked them to leave the house, 'because they were making a mess in her dad's office'."
Murdered for nothing
The robbers fled with a TV, Mouton's cellphone and wallet, and computer monitors.
"They left all the valuable items. He was basically murdered for nothing.
"Monay is receiving counselling, but she can't stop crying. I can't even take her back to the house; she remembers everything and becomes hysterical," said her mother.
"Still, I'm so proud of her, she was so brave. She has always been a mature, independent child."
The Moutons were together for 16 years.
"I can't breathe without him," she said.
"He was our everything, the best of the best."
Eric Lyell, a local attorney, along with Mouton's sister, Carina Huntly, are offering a R40 000 reward for the suspects' arrest.
Lyell said he wants to ask the families of the guilty parties "if they would do that to their own children".
Mrs Mouton warned that people should be alert, "because it can just as easily happen to you tomorrow".