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By Marizka Coetzer

Journalist


I smell a Devilsdorp 2 coming

No-one talks about how a teacher-turned-serial-killer abused her children by beating her son with a baseball bat more than 30-odd times


Devilsdorp has social media tongues wagging. Based on the bizarre Krugersdorp “appointment” murders (estate agents were murdered after setting up appointments), the docuseries of four episodes within the first week of its release on Showmax broke the record for most views, beating out the likes of Game of Thrones. And this story sounds like a Hollywood movie from hell. My take on it? Shocking… I covered the story and got too deeply involved, but it’s completely different watching that same story on TV. I’m not going to lie: I was freaked out – and there was little on the show…

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Devilsdorp has social media tongues wagging.

Based on the bizarre Krugersdorp “appointment” murders (estate agents were murdered after setting up appointments), the docuseries of four episodes within the first week of its release on Showmax broke the record for most views, beating out the likes of Game of Thrones.

And this story sounds like a Hollywood movie from hell.

My take on it? Shocking…

I covered the story and got too deeply involved, but it’s completely different watching that same story on TV. I’m not going to lie: I was freaked out – and there was little on the show I didn’t know.

I watched the shocking interviews, the fancy camerawork and all the eye-popping moments as a member of the audience. I cried with the victims and even cheered when the murderers were convicted – as if I had not played a role in any of it.

But I have to confess: I’m not completely innocent. I didn’t kill anyone but my own reputation because, instead of only writing the story, I became part of the story.

Even years later, I am still fascinated by the story. During the court case, the motive found for the killings was “occult” and money-related. Still, we don’t really know the reason.

Why and how did Cecilia Steyn, who apparently did not even matriculate, manage to fool a group of intelligent people around her? She was, after all, the bride of Satan – or is she?

Her string of puppets, the high school teacher Marinda Steyn and her two children, Marcel Steyn, the straight-A student, and Le Roux Steyn, the serial killer along with Zak Valentine, threw away their lives to obey her every rule.

The documentary left many with more questions than answers.

One of my encounters with Marinda at “Sun City” prison was to give her a gift for Mother’s Day from her serial-killer son.

While sitting in the visiting area with the English-teacher-turned-serial-killer, I noticed some creative craftwork on exhibition in the corner.

Trying to make small talk with one of South Africa’s most dangerous women, I asked her about the little Elsa handbag.

Marinda said she had applied for the craft class but was refused because, apparently, she was not allowed to handle scissors.

“I wonder why,” I said out loud.

This was the first time I saw Marinda laugh.

She laughed not because it was funny but, I guess, because I had the guts to say it to her face. What I will never forget was her remark when I told her she had lovely children, Marcel included.

“I moered the manners into them,” she said in a strict school-teacher voice. But that is not all I wonder about. Why was Marinda never accused and charged with neglect or abuse of children?

No one talks about how she abused her children by beating Le Roux with a baseball bat more than 30-odd times, or dragging 14-year-old Marcel to a plot and forcing her to stab Valentine’s wife with a blunt knife. Why? Why don’t we care?

While the case may be over and the murderers behind bars, so many stories are left untold. I smell a Devilsdorp 2 coming…

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