Charlize. Chris Karsten
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When I showed him a Father’s Day card my children had made for me, he became even more upset.
Then he picked up the telephone and phoned his house. The telephone rang for a while before it was answered. I concluded that it was his daughter, Charlize, who had answered.
I heard Charles ask Charlize why she had not greeted anyone. I concluded that she was answering back, at which Charles became very angry and shouted: “Man, fuck you and your mother!” Then he slammed down the telephone.
He sat down again but about 15 minutes later he decided to leave. He asked me to take him home. At first I was reluctant and I gave him the keys to my pickup so that he could drive himself. He insisted that I take him home.
While we were driving, he remarked that he would probably be staring down the barrel of the 12-bore again tonight.
I also want to mention that Mrs Theron had threatened to shoot me on previous occasions.
When we arrived at his house, he invited me to come in for a drink. I did not want to, for I did not want to cause any more trouble, but Charles insisted.
When we got to the porch, he said that his wife had locked him out again. He tugged at the door, but nobody came to open it. Then he said: “Tonight I’m going to shoot this lock off the door.” He fired a shot at the lock. Then he pulled at the sliding door.
Then he fired a shot into the ground. At no stage did Mrs Theron open the door or shout anything. At this point I told Charles to stop and tried to hold him back, but he pulled free and said: “Leave me alone.”
I was scared and decided it would be safer to wait outside. I was standing almost right next to the pickup, where it was dark. I could hear Charles tug at the sliding door again. At this point he managed to get the [sliding] door open and I could hear the door open.
Immediately afterwards I heard a shot being fired. I was afraid and began to approach the house. When I reached the door on the porch, I heard a second shot, and then more shots. I’m not sure exactly how many shots I heard.
I realised that there was serious trouble and I ran in through the sliding door.
When I turned the corner into the passage, I saw Mrs Theron standing in the doorway to their bedroom. She looked at me. The revolver was still in her hand.
When she saw me, she raised the firearm immediately and fired at me. I held up my hands and dived sideways into a corner of the passage. Then I realised that she had hit me. I lay still and pretended to be dead. Mrs Theron walked up to me – I could hear her footsteps – and stood still. Then she turned and ran back to the bedroom. I looked up and saw her entering the room again.
I jumped up immediately and ran out. I was wounded in my left hand. At one stage blood was spurting from the wound.
I wanted to get away and when I got outside I heard Charlize give a terrible scream. Immediately afterwards I heard another shot. I just ran. The keys of my pickup were inside the house where I had dropped them.
Later the police visited the scene and took over.
Elsa Malan was the first one to reach her brother’s body in the bedroom and she declared:
I, Mrs Elizabeth Johanna Malan, a white female, aged 31, residing and working at Plot 25, c/o Cloverdene Road and Third Road, Cloverdene, tel. [omitted], declare under oath:
On Friday 1991–21–06 at about 15:30 my brother, Mr Charles Theron of Plot 56, Seventh Road, Cloverdene, phoned my other brother, Danie, who was staying with us at the time, and asked Danie to come and visit him [Charles]. A short while later Danie left to go to Charles Theron at Plot 56, 7th Road, Cloverdene.
Soon afterwards Charles and Danie returned to our plot. Danie showed Charles his new pickup and they took a drive.
When they returned, Charles had a small bottle of Underberg with him. He said he had a terrible headache and that he would drink the Underberg as it would take away the headache. He didn’t drink much more liquor apart from that.
A short while afterwards I took a bath and heard someone talk in here [in the kitchen]. I took no notice of it and after I had finished my bath, I was told that Charles’s wife had been here. It was Mrs G. Theron and her daughter Miss C. Theron.
I asked Charles why Charlize, his daughter, had not come inside. He told me that she had indeed come inside, but that she had greeted no one, only used the toilet and walked out again.
There had previously been arguments between Danie and Mrs Theron.
Then Charles decided to phone his daughter. He phoned her and at first he spoke to her nicely and asked why she had been so rude to her relatives.
I heard Charlize screaming at Charles. I also heard Mrs Theron screaming in the background.
Then Charles became very angry and said: “Tell that fucking bitch to shut up, and fuck you too.” He slammed down the phone. He was noticeably upset.
Some time later Charles and Danie drove to Mrs Theron and Charles’s house. At first Danie did not want to go along because he and Mrs Theron did not see eye to eye at all. But Charles insisted that he should go along.
Soon afterwards we received the news that there had been a shooting and we left for Charles’s plot immediately.
When we arrived there, we found the deceased, Charles, in the [main] bedroom. Danie was not there at the time.
In my presence the body sustained no further wounds or injuries.
In her statement about the conversation she had had with Gerda and Charlize on Sunday, when she had gone to their house to see where her son had died, Bettie Moolman said:
I, Mrs Elizabeth Johanna Moolman, a white female residing at [omitted], Kuruman, tel. [omitted], declare under oath:
On Sunday 1991–06–23 I was at Plot 25, Cloverdene, with my daughter, Mrs Malan. The deceased in the case, Mr C. Theron, was my son.
On [Sunday] 1991–06–23 Mrs [Gerda] Theron phoned me and asked me to come to her house. She is the wife of the deceased, my daughter-in-law.
When I arrived at Plot 56, Cloverdene, Mrs Theron invited me in and we began to talk. I asked Mrs Theron to tell me what had really happened there on the [Friday] evening of 1991–06–21.
Mrs Theron said that the deceased had been furious because they had locked him out of his own house and because his daughter had allegedly not greeted him when he had been with family earlier that evening.
She also said that the deceased and Danie Theron had been drunk.
Then I asked her to show me how everything had happened. First she showed me the kitchen door where the deceased had wanted to come in. She said that she had not wanted to open the door for him and that he had then fired a shot.
After that she showed me the door of the bar and said that the deceased had forced open the [sliding] door.
We walked on and in an alcove in the passage [I] saw that someone had been cleaning. I asked Mrs Theron whether that was the place where she had shot Danie. She answered affirmatively.
Then we went to the main bedroom where the shooting had taken place. I noticed that there were several blood stains that were covered with sheets.
Mrs Theron said: “Ma, he was the strongest man. He wouldn’t fall.”
She [unclear] her hands in the air and said: “Dear God, help me to give him one more shot so that he will fall.”
Then we went back to her office. There I asked the deceased’s daughter, Charlize, why she had not greeted the deceased at the family’s house before the incident. Then the incident might not have happened.
Charlize looked at her mother and asked: “Am I getting all the blame now?” Then she jumped up and ran outside. She was crying.
After