MURDER victims Willie and Julie le Roux were buried yesterday at a small cemetery in the Harkerville forest near Plettenberg Bay.
Grieving relatives travelled from across the country to attend the funeral while Plettenberg Bay residents and relatives filled the local NG Kerk to capacity for the memorial service.
The Le Roux couple’s bodies were found on their smallholding near Kranshoek last Monday, a day after police discovered their stolen car abandoned at a KwaNokuthula training college.
Police said Julie le Roux, 50, was shot in the forehead at point-blank range and her husband, aged 53, was killed by numerous blows to the head with a heavy, blunt object and was also stabbed in the heart, possibly with a screwdriver.
Both were murdered with their hands wired together and Willie’s feet were also bound with wire. Julie’s body was found in a bedroom of the main house and Willie was found in one of two chalets on the property, some distance from the main house.
Ds Emile Naude told the service there was no rational explanation for such acts of “senseless cruelty”.
Naude said the Le Roux murders were the second incident of violent crime to rock the Plett community in just three weeks. He was referring to the murder of Wittedrift pensioner Johanna Blignault, 78, a crime which led to the arrest of two teenagers.
It also emerged yesterday that two of the three KwaNokuthula men arrested for the Le Roux murders were recently sacked from the construction business operated by Le Roux and his brother Ben.
Ben le Roux said Bongani Mateyise, 23, and Luvovo Ngabon, 21, had both been employees of Le Roux Builders. Mateyise was fired about three months ago for stealing a co-worker’s shoes. Ngabon was dismissed about a month ago for stealing a bottle of sparkling wine from a client of the company.
“We later took Luvovo back because Willie felt sorry for him, but then had to lay him off again about two weeks ago, along with most of our other workers, because we had no work for them.”
Ben said he and his brother had worked together for 10 years. “I miss him so much. I don’t know how I am going to carry on without him.”
He confirmed that he was the first to find the bodies of his brother and sister-in-law, and that a pillow was used to muffle the gunshot which killed Julie.
Police are testing a .38 revolver recovered after being stolen from the Le Roux property, to establish whether it was the murder weapon.
Mateyise, Ngabon, and Silengiswe Singaphi, 20, made a first appearance in the Plett Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday this week following their arrest in Nekkies, Knysna, on Saturday.
Mateyise’s antics of winking at the packed gallery upon entering and leaving the courtroom infuriated the victims’ family.
The three are to appear in court again next Wednesday. They have not yet been asked to plead and are in jail.
Source: The Weekend Post
