The man who brutally murdered a Gqeberha physiotherapist, Marolien Schmidt, did so for the mere R600 he gained from selling her cell phone.
Before making off with Schmidt's phone, Simxolele Zitshu, 32, stabbed her with three definitive strikes to her heart.
Schmidt was killed just more than a week after celebrating her 40th birthday.
The 40 white lilies she received from her brother, Jan, and a unicorn balloon surrounded by her blood greeted family members who visited the home after her death.
Zitshu gave a chilling account of what happened on the night of the murder in his plea agreement before the court.
He described how he roamed Richmond Hill looking for a house to break into before breaking a window and finding himself inside Schmidt's home.
While removing the flat screen television, he noticed a light was switched on somewhere in the house.
Zitshu wanted to exit the house through the same window he entered through.
"The next moment I saw a big white lady, the deceased running at me.
"She attacked me and started wrestling with me, screaming the whole time. As we wrestled, she dropped her phone.
"She was very strong and she was getting the better of me. We ended up falling to the ground due to the fact that she was overpowering me.
"I realised that I was not going to get away from this lady as she was very strong."
It was at this point that Zitshu reached for his knife and started stabbing Schmidt in her chest and elsewhere on her body.
She stopped attacking him, but continued to scream, according to his plea.
Zitshu made off with Schmidt's phone, which he later sold for R600.
He was apprehended by the investigating officer, Constable Ridwaan Baatjies, on the same day.
Before sentencing him to life imprisonment, Judge Mandela Makaula asked Zitshu whether it was his version that he took an innocent life in such a brutal manner for a mere R600.
He looked up at Makaula and answered "yes".
Makaula said the interests of the community far outweighed Zitshu's personal circumstances and that the only appropriate sentence would be one of life imprisonment.
In her Victim Impact statement, Schmidt's mother Sineke said her daughter lived peacefully in her home for 13 years and never felt unsafe.
She described mustering up the courage to pull back the white sheet covering Schmidt's body in a "pungently smelling mortuary", nearly vomiting from the closeness of death.
It was here that she and Schmidt's brother, Casper, stood howling from pain and sorrow.
"She was lying there lifeless, ice-cold, and pale from all the blood she lost.
"She had wounds on her arms and hands, trying to avoid and protect herself from the lethal stabs of a ruthless killer.
He took her life in the cruelest, and the most unforgiving manner," Sineke said.
She said though she was content with the sentence, nothing would ever bring back her daughter.
Zitshu was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, 20 years imprisonment for robbery with aggravating circumstances, and eight years for housebreaking with the intention to steal.
He has a previous conviction of murder and robbery. The offences were committed on 20 December 2008.
When he killed Schmidt, Zitshu was out on parole.
