Vanderbijlpark granddad heartbroken by family murders
A Vanderbijpark man has spoken of his heartbreak at witnessing the bodies of his grandchildren and daughter-in-law being carried from their home after they were shot repeatedly.
"The time when they took [the bodies] out of the house, I couldn’t take it anymore," he told SABC News's Jacques Steenkamp.
"It's heartbreaking when you see your grandkids and your daughter-in-law has been shot, lying on the bed and on the floor, while there's nobody who can help you and you're running around looking for the police or somebody to come out and help you."
The murdered mother has been identified as Thea du Preez, 43, and her children as Carla, 17, and Philip, 14.
The grandfather was asleep in a house next to the one in which the three were shot in the early hours yesterday morning.
According to police, they found two unlicensed firearms in the garage of the house and arrested a 39-year-old man after he gave conflicting statements about the events.
Also read: Probe into KZN mass family killing
The man will be charged with murder, defeating the ends of justice and possession of unlicensed firearms and is expected to appear in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate's Court on Monday.
The dead woman's husband and father of the the two murdered teens has accused drug lords of being behind the murders.
"It was drug lords who did this. Ek belowe op ma se lewe hier was druglords hier gewees [I promise on mom's life that drug lords were here]," the man tells his mother-in-law in the SABC report.
A neighbour of the family said he saw the boy only a few days ago playing in the yard.
"We are pretty shocked we are near the people. Yesterday or the day before yesterday the little boy, Philip, was playing at the swimming pool and shouting 'hello' and all of that," he said.
Two girls who were good friends of Philip's came to the house with flowers. "He was a very special person in all of our hearts. There are no words," one of them said.
(File photo: Getty Images)