Girl's night of terror after grandparents' murder
2001-03-26 23:19
Elliot, Eastern Cape - The pillow of a 2-year-old girl was wet and crumpled from tears after she spent the night alone with the bodies of her murdered grandparents in a farmhouse in the district.
Tayla McGregor was already in bed when her grandparents, Kevin and Lu McGregor, were both shot in the head in the study of their house on the farm Blomvlei, while Tayla was locked in her nursery. It is not known at present how many times the couple were shot.
This is the third farm murder case in the area in the last two months. On January 20 Martie Scheepel, a former mayoress of Maclear, was shot in her kitchen in what appeared to be an execution. In another incident, May Rush, 80, was shot at a shop on the farm Hardale outside Maclear on February 8.
The McGregors were apparently shot when an unknown number of assailants arrived on the farm on Sunday night at about 21:00, and Tayla and the bodies were only discovered on Monday morning by a domestic worker.
Three arrested
The couple's burnt-out bakkie has been found in the Ugie district and three men were arrested on Monday in connection with the murders.
They are being held at Elliot and are expected to appear in court on Wednesday.
Police have also confiscated property belonging to the couple and two pistols, one of which appears to be the murder weapon.
"It was not a pleasant sight. These were people that we knew. One feels powerless when one witnesses such a scene - we are only happy that the child was not hurt," said Pat Vorster, a friend who spoke on behalf of the family.
He said that the domestic heard Tayla screaming. She threw a blanket over her head so that she would not be able to see the bodies and ran outside with the child. Workers took Tayla on a tractor to a neighbouring farm.
Vorster said Tayla, who lived with her grandparents, was apparently in her bed when the attackers arrived and locked her in her room. The dampness on her crumpled pillow was a sign that she had cried the whole night.
"I presume they shot Kevin immediately. His wife was shot in the doorway of the study when she probably went to see what was going on. I think they both died immediately."
Huge shock to the community
He said the death of the McGregors was a huge shock to the community. McGregor grew up in the area and was a well-liked man and excellent farmer.
Vorster said people were tired of attacks on farmers. "The attackers have no feeling for life. They feel nothing for people."
Mrs McGregor is survived by a daughter, Monique, and her husband by five brothers and a sister.