On the 26th of May 2018, a small farming town in the North-West was shocked by the news of two teenage girls found dead in a school hostel - Sharnell Hough was found hanged at a staircase while Marna Engelbrecht was found strangled in a bathroom.
Was it a double suicide, a murder, or was something darker and more sinister taking place in the community of Stella? It was a crime that shocked a nation and dominated headlines across the country.
The tragedy of the Stella hostel murders is now a Showmax crime documentary debuting on the streaming platform on 17 March.
The 90-minute production features interviews with Ronnie and Sonja Hough, Sharnelle’s parents; Stefaans, Rianet, and Riané Engelbrecht, Marna’s father, mother and sister; Captain Zagaries Human, the Stella South African Police Services station commander; Captain Markus Ferreira, the investigating officer; private investigator Chris Saunders; and Advocate Johan Smit, the state prosecutor, now retired.
The true-crime documentary is from David Enright and IdeaCandy, the director and production company respectively behind the breakout hit Devilsdorp, one of Showmax’s 10 most streamed titles of 2021, which sold internationally and won the 2022 SAFTA for Best Made for TV Documentary.
Showmax has released its first teaser trailer :
