Murder most foul!

[Michael Alexander]

As I was scanning through various folders, I found one marked, Police Case, it was dated July 1961..... and here are the three photo's from that folder, can anyone guess who or what?

[angus Buchanan]

Was this not the mother that drowned - I think - her kids in the bath???

Gus

[mavis(smith)]

Hi Gus, I thinkyou are right they had a girl (3)and a boy (2)then the mother cut her wrists.

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

Thats the same story Bobby was talking about the other day. They lived in inner or outer cresent. The mother did not die and was arrested. The girl still got away and ran up the passage and the mother went after her.

[Richard Opperman]

I remember this case.

My sisiter Cathy was a friend of the little girl and she had gone with us to the beach that day which was a Sunday afternoon.

The girl must have been 5 or 6 and the little boy two or younger. They lived in 6th avenue just up the road from us.
We lived in E11/6 a corner house and they were on the other corner 5 houses up.

The last I know was that the mother was still in Falkenberg Cape Town.

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

I remember the incident. Gus is right, they were murdered in the bathroom. Put into a bath filled with hot water if I can remember.

[Michael Alexander]

WHere was the father ?

[mavis(smith)]

at work.

[Michael Alexander]

On a Sunday? Was she just loopy? Was she ever tried in court? How was the community's reaction? Are the kids buried in the local Graveyard? ... more questions than answers...

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

@ Mike, the father was a shift worker and was not at home at that time if I can remember. Gus, myself and a few others (Castles) still went to the mortuary to see if we could see the kids. The kids are buried in the local graveyard. I can not recall the names or surnames of these people unfortunately. The community was stunned as you never heard about murders in OMD those days, all was cool calm and collective LOL.

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

I've also asked my mom the name but she doesn't remember either. Richard doesn't Cathy remember?

[Michael Alexander]

Just heard from a local ( you know who u are), the two kids are buried in the local Graveyard here. The mother was suffering from post natal, she cried out for help, but not many people recognised the signs back in those days, she drowned the kids, dried them off and put them back into bed.........

this is really a sad moment in our little towns history and I was told that the whole town felt this loss back then....

[Michele Alexander (Voden)]

How sad that years ago nobody knew anything about postnatal depression and one wonders how many lives could have been saved or made easier if more had been known about this disease back then.

In defence of the mother - boy am I going to get a bashing for this - she must have felt that her children would be better off in another place, far away from the life that she had been struggling through. There are so many stories, even today, about parents killing their children and then taking their own lives, obviously not able to carry on with their lives and not wanting to leave their children behind. One will never be able to understand what another person is going through and it is not up to us to make judgement.

This does not mean I agree with what these people have done or people who commit suicide - I feel they are very selfish people but like I say, we can never understand what these people are going through to make them do what they do.

[bobbysmith]

very true michelle and very sad too,another case that happened in om,both sandy and i unfortunately,bore wittness to this event.we had a mutual friend called brent alkers[spelling mite be wrong]young brent unfortunately passed away and his poor mom could not live without him,she took her own life.a very sad and disturbing thing for all to handle at the time

[SandyB]

Ive stayed out fo this one till now .. The story was as i remember  always related to  in hushed tones ..  and yes we would stop at the grave and look and in our young minds try to fathom out just what the hell happened ?? Post natal depression  is a very real  thing  , I had a colleague at work , she had a year of misery , it affected her work , her marriage , her health .. only good thing was she talked about it .. and we listened and encouraged .. and  she  showed everyone the bottle of tranquilisers  the doc had prescribed .. she never took one ..throughout the whole thing as  she had seen a member of her family   go to the dogs with developing dependence on them .. As it was pointed out years ago not much was known or understood about it ..  it was just a  case of  ..
"whats wrong woman ?/ snap out of it ..  children are supposed to make you happy and contented .. " ....
yes in a small community  tragedy always seems to hit harder ..