Annemarie Beukes, 20, of Swellendam died in hospital about 24 hours after being raped on the banks of a vlei.
|||Western Cape - Men who raped a 20-year-old Swellendam woman tried to drown her because she knew their identities, says her family.
Annemarie Beukes of Swellendam died in hospital as the result of a sudden and serious lung infection about 24 hours after being raped on the banks of a vlei.
Her aunt, Elizabeth Baron, with whom she had lived since she was five, told the doctors that she believed that the infection may have been caused by the filthy vlei water, and that her attackers had held her under water in a bid to kill her.
“I feel it is wrong, she had recognised her rapists and they wanted to kill her,” Baron told the Cape Argus.
“It’s water that runs from the graveyard and I think that’s what was in her lungs.”
Local police spokesman Captain Nicky Alberts said they were investigating a case of murder and rape. He said when Beukes was found she appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and they could not understand what she was saying.
On Thursday, Baron and Beukes’s father, Koos Beukes, described the last time they had seen her. At about 6pm last Friday father and daughter left their home in Railton, across the N2 from the main part of town, and went to visit relatives elsewhere in the area.
After some time Annemarie had wandered off on her own.
At about 10pm neighbours reported hearing screams coming from a marshy vlei area, but were not concerned, assuming the noise was being made by rowdy residents.
Then someone spotted Beukes sitting naked on some tyres near the water and raised the alarm.
Beukes was taken to a nearby hospital where she was treated for respiratory problems. The same night she was transferred to a hospital in Worcester.
Late on the Saturday night Baron had a call from the hospital, saying doctors wanted to speak to her.
“I knew something was wrong because they were phoning so late at night.”
She was asked whether she had known that Beukes had a very bad lung infection. She said she was surprised because Beukes was generally very healthy.
Then they told her Beukes had died. “I felt shocked and upset at hearing the news.”
Baron recalled later watching the police taking Beukes’s clothes out of the water.
“Her panties and her bra were torn and also the pants she was wearing – they ripped her clothes off of her.”
Beukes’s father remained almost silent during our visit, saying only that he was emotional, and “in pain” because she was his only daughter, and they lived together.
He also has an estranged son.
Local police spokesman Captain Nicky Alberts said Beukes had reportedly gone off on her own away from her friends that Friday night.
When she was found naked she had no visible injuries. She was taken to a local hospital and treated for respiratory problems. Police initially opened a case of assault.
He said an autopsy was conducted and the post-mortem revealed that she had been raped and had a lung infection which had been put down as the cause of death. “We think she may have taken in some water while she was being attacked,” he said.
Police are now investigating a case of murder and rape.
On Thursday, a local NGO offering services to women affected by gender-based violence issued a statement declaring outrage at the attack. Mosaic’s Kerryn Rehse had followed up on Radio Sonder Grense news reports about Beukes’s death.
Cape Argus