Survive Torture, strangulation, left behind for dead: Petro Weyers, 66, granddaughter Chaney, 6
both lucky to be alive: http://www.zoutpansberger.co.za/details/14-02-2014/vir_dood_gelos/23371
LOUIS TRICHARDT. Zoutpansberger reports: The best birthday gift Mrs Petro Weyers of Louis Trichardt could have asked for was that both her little granddaughter Chaney, 6 and she survived a horrific torture ordeal.
The two Afrikaners were attacked on February 6 2014 in Mrs Weyer's apartment in the Kitmet security complex in Anderson Street - one week before the grandmother's 66th birthday.
The Zoutpansberger interviewed Mrs Weyers within four hours after the shock event at her apartment. Coated in blood, still in shock, Mrs Weyers described the previous night's terror - while her little blonde granddaughter Chaney was playing to the one side.
"It was difficult to ignore the blue bruises on the child's little face, and the thick, red finger-marks around her little neck where the black male attacker had strangled the little girl,' writes the Zoutpansberger.
The grandmother is the child's guardian - and little Chaney shares her double-bed. The two woke up at around 23h00 from a noise and when the grandmother got up the little girl immediately asked 'what's wrong'.
" Petro turned on all the lights in the house but could find nothing amiss. All the doors were locked so the two went back to sleep.
At round 01h30 they were awakened by two black men who had their hands around the grandmother and her granddaughter's necks. They were straddling the white females.
"The man who sat on top of little Chaney was very cruel,' said the grandmother. She said they could see the men 'like black silhouettes against the lighter area of the closed curtains.
Petro said the man strangling her 'spoke fluent Afrikaans but spoke to his comrade in English'.
Three times little Chaney called out to her ... “Ouma! Ouma! Ouma!” . And each time the big black guy struck the little girl through the face and shouted Shut up! Shut up!”
"I am deeply angry with myself because I think Chaney thought I didn't want to help her... but I couldn't," said Petro.
She heard her little granddaughter grow silent while the attacker had his hands clenched around the toddler's neck as he tried to squeeze her life out of her. "The man picked her up and threw her little body to the floor.'
"I thought my child was dead,' said Petro, with emotion overwhelming her, she's weeping uncontrollably. "I prayed.. O I don't ever want to go through this again,' she murmurs.
The sadistic black man attacking her plucked out a knife and pushed it against her neck and side. He strangled her six times until she passed out - and then would release his grip so that she could gasp for air again.
"The man who had just strangled Chaney leaned over and hit Petro hard in her face with a fist, and they kept yelling 'where are the weapons?
Whenever she managed to gasp the words "I have none' they'd demand to know 'where's the money.' She had only R1,200 in her wallet which they took.
Zoutpansbergers describes her injuries from the torture when they cut away her watch, rings and arm-bands deep knife-cuts covered her hands and arms.
She explained that she always kept them on when she was sleeping.
They tied her up, took one of Chaney's pyjama pants from the dirty laundry basket, rolled it up, knotted it, pushed the knot into her mouth and the pants-legs were tied up around her head.
They took curtain-ropes from Petro's study, tied her hands stiffly against her neck - then tied a bedsheet around her head and packed pillows and sheets all around her.
She said she could barely breathe and kept wanting to pass out. 'Fortunately I managed to get the knot from my mouth or I would have asphyxiated,' she said.
After a while things grew silent. "I kept lying there for about half-an-hour I think, and then called out 'Chaney, Chaney'. And she woke up.
The toddler got up and helped her grandmom sit up. 'Her little hands weren't strong enough to get the ropes from around my neck, but she could get the rope untangled from my legs."
Petro managed to get one of her feet free - and then little Chaney, terrified, fearing that the attackers may still be in their house, walked to the study to fetch the telephone.
Petro could then call her brother Johnny Gouws. At was around 03h30. Their torture-ordeal had lasted two hours.
"Chaney is my hero: she pushed the numbers for me, she saved our lives, Ouma is so proud of you,' she said, her tears rolling down her cheeks while she looks at little Chaney.
Her brother Johnny Gouws and his son rushed to the apartment and called the police.
"We first walked around the flat and then we walked in. We untied her because she was tied up so tight she could never in her life gotten that rope off,' siad Johnny.
It took him a good ten minutes to get his sister untied.
He said he was shocked to see the condition she was in, but he was deeply grateful to see her and Chaney alive.
Petro said that she did not doubt that the attackers believed that she and Chaney would not have survived their sadistic torture.
The SAPS arrived 'reasonably quickly,' but, said Johnny, 'they did not secure the crime scene, and they took no statements, they just drove off again.'7
The victim's questions about the police failure to conduct a forensic examination on the scene, and questions on how exactly the attackers managed to gain access to the secure apartment, remain unanswered.
"No burglar-bars were cut, all the doors were locked after the attack.' One of the outside doors have the key missing even though it was still there the previous night.'
SAPS captain lt-col Ronel Otto, the provincial spokeswoman, was asked why the SAPS did not take any statements or secure the crime scene during their first visit.
She said 'the police members first on the scene should have barred it off until the crime-scene commander took over control.
"If this did not happen in this case, there will be a complete internal investigation as to why this was not done. If it's determined that the incorrect steps were taken, discliplinary action could be lodged.
The SAPS did show up again during the course of the morning, reportedly 'found good finger-prints and took statements', she said.
By the time Zoutpansberger went to print, no arrests were made, with the police 'conducting an detailed examination of the incident', it was said.
http://www.zoutpansberger.co.za/details/14-02-2014/vir_dood_gelos/23371
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