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The woman whose body was found trapped inside her vehicle at the bottom of the notorious Voëlklip cliff in Herold's Bay earlier this month wanted to end her life.
That’s according to the daughter of 57-year-old Jo-Anne Lourens who was reported missing on the 17th of March.
Lourens' daughter Jessica Hapgood-Strickland told AlgoaFM News that she received a call on the 16th that her mother was sitting inside her vehicle parked at Voëlklip.
She said when she arrived, her mom told her she wanted to drive off the cliff; ‘but did not have the guts to do so.
"I did not believe my mom as this was completely out of character for her," said Hapgood-Strickland.
Jessica then took her mother to her house in George where she watched over her until she went for a nap on Thursday.
"I was tired from watching over her the night before and went to lie down at around lunchtime. When I woke up I saw that she had left her ID book, pills and handbag on my table and her vehicle was gone."
Jessica immediately opened a missing person case at the George police station.
"I visited Voëlklip every day but didn't see anything," she said.
Captain Malcolm Pojie says police searched for Lourens, including at Voëlklip, from the moment she was reported missing.
Pojie said teams worked in the dark to retrieve the body and an assessment would be done in due course on whether or not to remove the wreckage.
He did, however, confirm that the vehicle matched the description of that belonging to the missing woman.
The Voëlklip cliff has earned a notorious reputation in recent years as it has claimed a number of victims.
The most recent incident was in February this year when Voëlklip claimed the life of 33-year-old Conrad Maree, whose bakkie plunged off the cliff.
A year earlier in February 2021, the cliff made headlines again when two women, both 75, drove their vehicle off the cliff. Police later found two firearms in the car.
The most tragic incident is that of Heidi Scheepers and her two children and it captivates the minds and hearts of local residents to this day. They cannot fathom the thought of a mother deliberately driving her car off the cliff with her two young children inside.
The 35-year-old Heidi and her two children went missing on the 22nd of October 2019 and their vehicle was found at the bottom of the cliff when a search party noticed tyre tracks near a ledge at Voëlklip.
The body of 2-year-old Hugo Scheepers was found first and Heidi's body was retrieved from the water a few days later.
A post mortem concluded that they both drowned.
The body of 6-year-old Cozette Scheepers was never found.
At least 14 people have died at Voëlklip over the years.
