Julian Jansen - The De Zalze Murders: The Story Behind the Brutal Axe Attack

The day dawns red

I N AN UPSTAIRS BEDROOM , the attacker has gone berserk. Ruthlessly, his forceful axe blows strike the head of the dark-haired young man. He is strong and agile and swiftly overpowers his victim, like a predator its prey. His quarry defends himself with his hands, desperately trying to ward off the blows. He fights to keep death at bay. But death looms over him.

More blows follow. And yet more. He grabs at his attacker. Slashing through the air, the axe cuts his left hand. The little finger hangs from a piece of skin. Blood spurts down his neck, over his bare torso, and down onto his boxer shorts.

He starts stumbling. Breath rattling, he falls face down. His body comes to rest on his bed, limp.

A grey-haired man rushes into the bedroom. The nightmare from which he woke with a start was no dream, but the cries of death. He stops, shocked, at the bed on which his older son lies, and it is there the killer strikes, raining down axe blows mainly to the back of the older mans head. Death comes quickly.

His wife and teenage daughter, terror-stricken, are fleeing down the passage towards the stairs leading to the ground floor. They have to pass the room where the screams have now fallen quiet.

The attacker blocks their path. The mother rushes straight at him. She is hit on the nose. Then he aims at her head with the axe. She tries to hold him off with her right hand, and the weapon strikes her thumb and upper head. Her head snaps forward. Now he has the back of her skull in his sights. Hacking blows hit it with enormous violence. She falls down.

And does not get up again.

The axe wounds the blonde girl on the right side of her head. She collapses next to her mother, her jugular vein partially severed.

***

The summer sun is rising behind the Jonkershoek mountains as domestic workers walk to work on the De Zalze golf estate outside Stellenbosch shortly after seven oclock. They cant believe their eyes: in front of a double-storey house in Goske Street stands a bloodied, half-naked young man. Dressed only in grey sleeping pants and short white socks, he is preoccupied with his cellphone. The curious audience grows as the young man with the dark-blond hair talks on the phone, but no one can make out anything of the conversation.

At 7:12 am he calls the 107 emergency number. Janine Philander, an operator at the public emergency communication centre in Cape Town, answers. She puts the call through to the ambulance services at Tygerberg Hospital in Parow. A female operator speaks to the caller and Philander:

OPERATOR : Ambulance services. Good morning.

PHILANDER : Morning. Janine, 107. Im speaking to?

OPERATOR : Youre speaking to Christi, Janine.

PHILANDER : Christi, I have a caller on the line. Theyre on some winelands there in Stellenbosch, but the address is a bit tricky Uhm three adults. One teenage girl. One adult is on the line. His name is Henri.

OPERATOR : Henri?

PHILANDER : Yes. They were assaulted now with an axe. No suspects on scene. He says Im going to conference you. Want you to hear this. Hold. Henri?

HENRI : Yes.

PHILANDER : Ive got ambulance services on the line. So, he gave me a few different addresses. The one hes gonna go with, he says, is 10 Allemann Street. In Stellenbosch.

HENRI : Yeah. If you go to 10 Allemann Street. Are you sending one there?

OPERATOR : OK , tell me, what is your street name?

HENRI : My street name is Goske.

OPERATOR : OK , die straat waar die incident is ? [ OK , the street where the incident is?]

HENRI : Yes it. Yes.

OPERATOR : OK , wats die straat se naam ? Goske. [Whats the name of the street? Goske.]

HENRI : Goske. Goske Street.

OPERATOR : Goske. G-O-S-K-E .

HENRI : Yes, Goske, in Stellenbosch.

OPERATOR : Is it a street name? OK . Lets just check this. Hold for me.

OPERATOR TO PHILANDER : Kry jy daai straat? [Do you find that street?]

PHILANDER : No, I get a Bothasig in Milnerton.

HENRI : If you just, 10 Allemann is just past my street. If you send an ambulance.

OPERATOR : Is it Allemone or Allemann?

HENRI : Allemann.

OPERATOR : OK , spel daai vir my, ek wil gou hier opskryf . [ OK , spell that for me. I just want to write it down.]

HENRI : A-double L-E-M-A -double N .

OPERATOR : A-double N .

HENRI : Alle-mann with two ns.

OPERATOR : Im not picking it up.

PHILANDER : Let me just write it here on my thingy.

OPERATOR : Is it number 10, neh? Al-le-mann.

HENRI : Do you get any Allemann Street? You can send anybody and I can meet him there in the road.

O PERATOR : Allemann Street. Not Anemone. Its Allemann?

HENRI : Yah.

OPERATOR : In which area of Stellenbosch is it?

HENRI : Hi. Its in De Zalze.

OPERATOR : Pardon?

PHILANDER : De Zalze.

HENRI : Called De Zalze.

OPERATOR : Watter area in Stellenbosch is dit? [What area in Stellenbosch is this?]

PHILANDER : De Zalze. D-E-Z-A-L-T-S-E .

HENRI : No, D-E-Z-A-L-Z-E . [Philander spells along with Henri.]

OPERATOR : Zalze. OK , golf estate.

HENRI : Its a golf estate.

OPERATOR : OK , OK , what kind of injuries is this?

HENRI : Uhm My My My family and me have been were attacked by a guy with an axe.

OPERATOR : With an axe unconscious, huh?

PHILANDER : Theyre unconscious, he says.

HENRI : Yes and bleeding from the head. [He gives a nervous giggle.]

OPERATOR : OK die adres [the address]. OK . Just want to get the right thing here. Hou aan . [Hold on.]

[No conversation for 23 seconds.]

OP ERATOR : OK . Hold on. You say its number 10 Allemann Street. De Zalze golf estate in Stellenbosch?

HENRI : Yeah.

OPERATOR : OK , thank you, sir, well send a just keep your cell open in case they get lost.

PHILANDER : OK .

HENRI : OK . Call on my mobile phone. Call on my mobile phone. I will be out in the street meet the ambulance there.

OPERATOR : OK then. OK .

HENRI : How, how long will you ?

OPERATOR : It wont be long Well send an ambulance out as soon as possible. OK then.

PHILANDER : OK .

OPERATOR : Thank you, sir. Goodbye.

PHILANDER : Bye-bye.

***

Just before half past seven a police vehicle turns hurriedly into the narrow Goske Street. A neighbour had already called the 10111 emergency number when he realised something strange was happening. The vehicle stops in front of the white double-storey house with the two young trees. Sergeant Adrian Kleynhans and Constable Marius Jonkers jump out, removing their service pistols from their holsters as they walk. The sergeant scans the surroundings, and sniffs the air, as if he smells danger. At the white garage door he jiggles the handle to see if it is locked. Then he looks though a chink in the curtains of the window to the right of the front door. The room inside is dark.

The next moment he bumps into Henri, who has a cellphone in his hand. Sergeant Kleynhans is even more on the alert when he sees the blood on the young mans body and sleeping pants. He asks him who he is, what has happened, what is wrong? Henri just mumbles something and, rather casually, points to the top floor.