A fiery lovers’ tiff over a Joburg woman’s birthday well-wishers led to her being stabbed to death, allegedly by her jealous boyfriend.
|||Johannesburg - A fiery lovers’ tiff over a Joburg woman’s birthday well-wishers led to her being stabbed to death, allegedly by her jealous boyfriend.
The woman, 43, had reportedly started the day in high spirits, but it ended with her lying dead in a pool of blood in an Eldorado Park flat she shared with her partner.
The 63-year-old man had suspected she was cheating on him, said people who were at the block of flats on Wednesday night, when the deadly attack happened.
After allegedly killing the woman, he also apparently attacked his neighbours when they tried to intervene. Three of them were injured.
A four-year-old boy who had been asleep on the couch wasn’t spared. When the enraged man spotted him, he also allegedly stabbed him twice in the upper body with the same knife he used to kill his girlfriend.
The boy’s bloodied orange T-shirt with multiple stab holes greeted visitors in his grandmother’s lounge.
The tragedy started when the woman’s birthday well-wishers began calling and SMSing her, a neighbour said.
Thinking that she was cheating on him, he allegedly attacked her in a fit of rage. When neighbours heard the woman’s screams, they rushed over. The woman tried to run out of the flat but he pulled her back, shut the door and apparently stabbed her to death.
He then allegedly set his sights on the neighbours.
First he spotted the boy asleep on the couch and allegedly stabbed him in the upper body. The child is recovering in hospital.
The boy’s grandmother, who cannot be named to protect the minor’s identity, said the man had also tried to attack her other grandchild, a two-year girl, who was also asleep.
Thanks to her quick-thinking uncle who flung a TV at the attacker, the girl wasn’t injured. The uncle and grandmother were both stabbed.
When The Star arrived at the family home, their arms were bandaged and their clothes still stained with blood.
More blood was splattered on the cement stairs of the block of flats near police tape that cordoned off the crime scene. Neighbours apprehended the boyfriend, and threw stones at him and poured boiling water over him.
Police spokesperson Captain Phillemon Khorombi said the boyfriend was admitted to hospital under police guard.
“Once he recovers he will be charged with murder and attempted murder.”
The grandmother said she overheard the couple arguing around 9pm on Wednesday.
“He was a jealous man and I would often hear them arguing. He once hit her head against a wall,” she said.
Although she was distressed about the well-being of her injured relatives, she was also mourning the loss of her neighbour and friend.
“I couldn’t save her,” she said, fighting back tears.
The family members of the slain woman arrived at the flat on Thursday and wept as they discussed funeral arrangements.
Some of them said the man should recover from his injuries so that so he could rot in prison.
karishma.dipa@inl.co.za
@Karishma_Dipa
The Star