Van Breda Family murders
Background
On 27 January 2015, 3 members of the Van Breda family were found murdered in their own home in Western Cape, South Africa. Henry van Breda was the sole surviving family member and eyewitness to the incident who could testify.
The family consisted of the parents, Teresa and Martin Van Breda. Their oldest son, Rudy Van Breda was born in 1992, after him they had Henry Van Breda in 1994 and Marli Van Breda in 1996.
When Henry was around 12 years old in 2006, the Van Breda family moved from South Africa to Perth, Australia. Financially, the family was doing very well because they had multimillion dollar homes and the children went to top schools.
In January of 2014, Teresa and Martin decided to move back to South Africa with their daughter because Martin found it difficult to operate his businesses from Australia and Teresa missed her family. Whereas, Rudy and Henry were still studying and attending the same university in Melbourne, Australia.
The parents and Marli moved into a luxurious home which was inside a gated community back in Western Cape, South Africa. It was an extremely beautiful area on a golf estate. It was considered as one of the safest areas in South Africa and the only way to get in would be through using an access card.
A few months later in August, Henry Van Breda decided to take a gap year and moved into the Western Cape estate with his parents and sister. In December, Rudy also came back to the estate as he was on his summer break. This meant that the family was all together for the summer.
The Van Breda's were considered to be a pretty tight knitted family. That summer they spent quality time together and did outdoor activities.
The Day of the Murders
On 26 Jan 2015, Martin was in the living room having some wine. Henry came home around 6pm and joined his dad, while Marli was in her room, Teresa was in the kitchen and Rudy had just come back from a run. They all had a lovely family dinner together and went to bed just like a normal night.
Henry couldn’t sleep that night; he was on his laptop for a while. It was around 2 or 3am when he went to the bathroom and was playing a game on his phone. He started to hear loud noises coming from his shared bedroom with his brother Rudy.
The Attack
As Henry came out of the bathroom and went into their room, he saw a masked figure who was covered from head to toe, standing between his and Rudy’s bed. The figure began to attack Rudy in his sleep which resulted in Henry yelling and his dad to come rushing into their room.
When Martin switched the light on, Henry saw that the figure was attacking Rudy’s head with an axe. Martin dove in to protect his son but the intruder started striking his back with the axe.
Henry was frozen with fear in the corner as Martin and Rudy stopped moving. According to him, the killer was laughing while he was attacking Henry’s father and brother.
Teresa must’ve heard the commotion because as she was walking up the stairs to check on them, the killer saw her and went to finish her off. Meanwhile, Henry was still frozen in shock when the killer came back for him.
According to Henry, the attacker moved slowly towards him and as soon as he began to swing his axe at him, Henry managed to grab the handle, wrestle it off him and pushed him away.
The attacker looked shocked that his axe was taken away from him. As Henry looked over, he saw Rudy making gurgling noises. Meanwhile, the attacker drew a knife on him. After a lengthy struggle between them, Henry got stabbed in his side and the attacker got his shoulder sliced by the axe.
Due to getting injured, the killer started running out of the room. Henry chased after him and, on the way, he saw his mother and sister sprawled on the floor, covered in blood. Henry threw the axe at the killer as he was running away but could not see if it hit him because he fell down the stairs.
Henry became disoriented and the killer ran away. He managed to call his girlfriend who was in Australia and google the emergency number for his area before passing out for 2 hours. When he woke up, it took him a minute to process what had happened or if it was all a dream.
At 7:12am in the morning, he dialed the emergency number on his family landline. This emergency call was highly frustrating as the operator was incompetent. Henry had to give his address to her at least 10-15 times and his phone number thrice. He got put on hold a couple times as well which is why the whole call lasted for 25 minutes. The first paramedic on the to reach said that the first floor was in absolute chaos and that it was the worst crime scene he had ever seen in his 39 years as a paramedic. When they moved the bodies, blood flowed like a waterfall down the stairs.
Aftermath
Martin, Teresa and Rudy were found dead at the crime scene. Marli was found in a critical condition and hospitalized.
Martin Van Breda (the father):
Died due to severe head injuries
Had chop wounds on the back of his head
No defensive wounds, which meant he had no idea he was being attacked until he was struck by the axe.
Blood was found in his lungs which meant he had not died instantly.
Teresa Van Breda (the mother)
Died from sharp, blunt-force trauma to her head
Several loose skull fragments were visible from her head
She had defensive wounds and had tried to fight back
There was no blood in her lungs which meant she died rapidly.
Rudy Van Breda (first son)
Died from chop wounds on his neck, temple and scalp
Loose bone fragments were visible upon discovery of the body
He had deep brain laceration and blood in his stomach, which meant he had not died instantly like his dad.
Marli Van Breda (the daughter)
She suffered 5 axe blows to her head
A severed jugular and multiple other injuries when
She was rushed to the hospital and kept in very heavy protection while she recovered.
On 5th February 2015, a memorial was held for Martin, Teresa and Rudy. After the memorial, police and investigators turned to Henry and Marli just to try and piece together what had really happened that night. Henry said that he could still hear the attacker laughing every night in his nightmares. Marli on the other hand, was recovering pretty well considering her condition. She was able to walk and communicate again but suffered from something called ‘Retrograde Amnesia’. This meant that she could not remember anything that had happened that night. As a result, Henry was the sole person who could testify.
Evidence
Police were under the assumption that this wasn’t a burglary gone wrong because there was no sign of forced entry or stolen valuables in the multimillion-dollar house. There were no bloody footprints or fingerprints to show if an outsider had been there. Infact, the murder weapons; the axe and the knife were obtained from inside the house as well. This is when the investigators started to look at Henry Van Breda as their suspect. According to the family’s neighbor, after 10pm he heard raised voices coming from their house to which Henry responded that it was just them listening to Star Trek on their new surround sound system. This was a loophole because Henry had previously said that they were done watching Star Trek before 10pm. The neighbor claimed that he knew the difference between yelling voices and a movie. The blood on Henry’s shorts and socks was of his family members and the blood splatter did not match what he was saying. He had provided police with false information. His injuries were self-inflicted and superficial. His phone records showed that around 4:24am that night, he had called his girlfriend and at 7:12am, he started googling emergency contact details. This was abnormal because their refrigerator already had a list of emergency numbers on it. The operator was unhelpful because she thought she was being pranked. On the emergency call, he sounded unconcerned about the whole situation. There was no sense of urgency, fear or shock in his voice. She claimed that Henry giggled during the call right after he said that his family members were bleeding to death.
The Trial
At Henry’s plea hearing (where he pleaded not guilty), his lawyer read an 18-page explanation of his plea. The explanation and his initial statements to police were different. According to him this was because the statement was transcribed by the police.
The police needed to prove that nobody got into the house.
They had the family maid on the stand who confirmed that the weapons were from the house itself.
The estate had high electric fences, 360-degree cameras and 24/7 patrolling. The estate’s security manager also testified that there was no breach in security that night.
Forensic experts testified that there were no foreign finger or footprints in the house.
The prosecution proved that there was no break in. They took Henry’s statement and found multiple loopholes in it. The more questions he answered, the more people started to dislike him. Even while he was on the stand, there was no emotion in his eyes or voice.
Motive and Sentence
It was found out that he was a heavy drug user. The motive for the murders was that he wanted inheritance money for his drug addictions. In July of 2017, Henry Van Breda was handed 3 life sentences for the murders of Martin, Teresa and Rudy Van Breda. Additionally, he got 15 years for the attempted murder of Molly Van Breda and 1 year for the obstruction of justice.
Comments