Woman dies almost two years after stabbing attack
“I don’t have words. It is so sad. It is such a huge loss to me. She has been fighting so hard after the attack.”
A resident from Centurion who was wounded in a stabbing, which occurred in January last year, died on Saturday evening in a Pretoria hospital.
Barnie van Heerden (56) said his wife, Magda (51), had been in hospital for the past two months where she had been fighting an infection and her heart eventually failed.
Rekord reported in January last year that the couple’s son, Ruan van Heerden and two others, were arrested after the couple had been attacked at their home in Pierre van Ryneveld Park.
Magda was stabbed 36 times and never fully recovered after the attack. Barnie was also stabbed and beaten with a golf club. His arm was also broken during the attack.
Police at the time were investigating a case of attempted murder after the couple was attacked at their residence in Avian Avenue.
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“I don’t have words. It is so sad. It is such a huge loss to me. She has been fighting so hard after the attack,” Barnie said.
“Due to the attack there was damage done to her intestines, which could not be successfully repaired by surgery in September. There were complications,” Barnie said.
Barnie said she gave it her all, but she just couldn’t recover.
“Her immunity has also been greatly compromised and I believe her body was just not able to keep fighting the infection. Her condition just deteriorated,” Barnie said.
After the attack, Rekord reported that preliminary reports suggested that their then 18-year old son and a then 17-year old woman from Waterkloof, attacked the couple. They then allegedly fled to Aliwal North in a vehicle belonging to his father.
The vehicle was later found abandoned near Thembisa. Police later also arrested a then 20-year-old man in connection with the attack, Colson Phelps. He was the third person to have been arrested in connection with the crime.
The matter had since been struck off the magistrate court’s roll. It was in the process of being transferred to the High Court, according to Barnie.
The National Prosecuting Authority is yet to comment on the matter.
No funeral arrangements have been made yet.
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