The De Zalze Murders - The Story Behind The Brutal Axe Attack (Paperback)

Could drugs, jealousy and money have driven a normal 20-year-old to wipe out nearly his whole family with an axe?

The Van Bredas from Stellenbosch were seemingly the perfect family. Wealthy, successful and popular. They led a dream life at the luxury De Zalze golf estate.

And then, in a flash, everything changed. The country was stunned by the news of the gruesome killings of Martin, his wife Teresa, and their 22-year-old son Rudi. The blonde teenage daughter Marli miraculously survived, but was unable to remember the events of that fatal night due to a brain injury.

Eventually the other son, Henri, who escaped the bloodbath unscathed and knew what had really happened, was charged with the three murders.

One by one, relatives and friends started talking. They painted a picture of parents who had been at their wits' end with their difficult ‘loner’ child. Henri's drug addiction had reportedly caused ‘great discord’ in the household, and he was said to have been ‘pissed off’ with his parents for supposedly favouring his brother Rudi.

Could it be that the Van Bredas' own child had been the one who wielded the axe?