More than four years after a young Gqeberha mother was brutally stabbed and left for dead in an open field in Schauderville, her killer has been convicted of her murder.
The family members of 26-year-old Shenice "Fetu" Jonathan wept bitterly as Magistrate Wesley Reid delivered the verdict.
Jonathan's murder on 6 August 2020, two days before Women's Day, sent shockwaves and outrage through the Schauderville community.
Her mutilated, nearly decapitated body was discovered the next day in what is known as "Die Kampie" with 47 stab wounds.
At the time of her death, Jonathan's daughter was 19 months old.
Her killer, Quinton Scheepers, 22, was arrested more than a year later in 2021, while he attended the murder trial of his friend, Eustice Hahn.
His arrest came after his girlfriend and the mother of his child told the investigating officer, Detective Warrant Officer Neil Hendricks what she witnessed on the night of the murder.
The 19-year-old woman, who cannot be named for her safety, spilled the beans to Hendricks eight months after Jonathan's murder, and only when he dealt with her regarding Hahn's death.
Hahn was killed in January 2021.
Her testimony placed Scheepers in the vicinity of Die Kampie and at around the time the murder was said to have taken place.
She testified that she noticed fresh blood on Scheeper's and Hahn's clothing that night and that Scheepers had later confessed to killing Jonathan.
Reid said State Prosecutor Kim Barrath had succeeded in proving Scheepers was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Among others, Barrath called two witnesses to testify as to a possible motive for the murder.
The court heard that a couple of days before Jonathan's death she was embroiled in an argument with Scheepers because it had come to light that she was allegedly in a relationship with his mother.
Reid pointed out that the evidence led by the defence, which included Scheeper's mother, had been contradictory in several material aspects.
Jonathan's mother, Mercia, thanked God for the guilty finding.
She said once sentencing has concluded they will be able to close the chapter and also inform Jonathan's daughter, who is now five years old, that justice had been meted out for her mother.
"She speaks to her mother's photographs in the house and she kisses the box with her ashes before she goes to school every morning."
Her elder sister, Sherron said without God the family would not have survived the ordeal.
"We did not fully get closure because we still don't have certainty as to why she was so brutally murdered.
"We do however stand here with grateful hearts that justice prevailed and we're hoping for the best with the upcoming sentence," she said.
The defence has requested that a pre-sentence report be compiled.
Sentencing procedures have been postponed to 27 January next year.
