Shorty in tears as he recalls murder discovery

THE memory of the moment when he found his parents dead after the massacre at farm Kareeboomvloer more than four years ago left Shorty Erasmus in tears in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Over the more than four years in which he has been accused of having been the mastermind behind the murder of his parents and six other people in the Kareeboomvloer farm massacre, Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus has been presenting an unperturbed public face to the world. This came to an end yesterday, when Erasmus (31) was finally overcome by emotions as he recounted to Judge President Petrus Damaseb how he discovered his murdered parents’ bodies in their farmhouse in the early morning hours of March 6 2005.One of the three people on trial with Erasmus is Sylvester Beukes (24), a former employee of Erasmus’s parents, Justus and Elzabé Erasmus, who has admitted that he was the killer of the eight people who were murdered at Kareeboomvloer from March 4 to 5 2005.At a first appearance in the Mariental Magistrate’s Court on March 9 2005, Beukes stated that he had killed the Erasmus couple because he wanted to exact revenge on Mr Erasmus over a stock-theft charge that the latter laid against him the year before. The other people at the farm – including a pregnant woman and two children – were murdered because he did not want to leave any witnesses behind, Beukes stated.Five days after that, Beukes however told the Police a different story: that Shorty Erasmus had asked him to murder his parents so that Erasmus could get his hands on his inheritance.Erasmus was arrested and became a co-accused of Beukes and the latter’s brother, Gavin Beukes (27), on March 15 2005. On March 1 2007, he went on trial before Judge President Damaseb with the Beukes brothers and Rehoboth area resident Stoney Neidel (32), with the four men each facing 15 charges, including eight counts of murder.On Monday, Erasmus finally got his chance to testify in his own defence.On the first day of his testimony, he denied any suggestion that he had conspired with Sylvester Beukes to have a contract killing carried out against his parents.Yesterday, Erasmus’s defence lawyer, Petrie Theron, took him through the events of March 5 2005, which was the last day that he saw his parents alive, before they drove from their house in Windhoek to the farm between Rehoboth and Kalkrand where gunshots to their heads would bring their lives to a bloody end later that day.Erasmus told the court that he had visitors at his house in Hochland Park that day. He was watching rugby on television, cooking some food on a fire outside, and enjoying a few drinks when his mother phoned him at about 15h30 that afternoon and told him that a worker had phoned from the farm to report that he had been injured.In a second call about 10 to 15 minutes later, his mother informed him that she and his father would drive to the farm to check up on the injured worker. She asked him if he wanted to accompany them, but he declined the offer, as he had visitors at that stage, Erasmus testified.Erasmus said he asked his mother, who said they would be returning to Windhoek the same day still, to give him a call from the farm to let him know what was going on there.He never heard from her again.Around 20h00 that evening he started getting worried and began calling both his parents’ cellphones and the phone at the farm, but did not get any reply, he said.By about 22h00 he decided to drive to his parents’ house in Cimbebasia, Erasmus testified. They were not there, and when he tried to make another call to his mother’s cellphone, he heard the phone ringing in the house and realised that she had left it at home.He then decided to drive to the farm to check whether his parents had not perhaps experienced trouble with their bakkie that may have left them stranded next to the road, Erasmus said.He arrived at the farm at between 00h15 and 00h30, he said. At the farmhouse, everything was dark, and his parents’ bakkie was not there. Then he heard his parents’ pet dog barking inside the house.’I thought someone here is playing a trick on me, to scare me,’ he said, telling the court that he is actually afraid of the dark.He then positioned his mother’s car, in which he had driven to the farm, so that its headlights shone into the house, Erasmus said.When he went to the front door to unlock it, he saw that it had been broken open. As he opened the door, his parents’ dog came running out.Erasmus said he went into the dark house. When he switched on a light in the kitchen, he saw everything in that part of the house was in disarray.After lighting an oil lamp, he walked with it to the main bedroom of the house, where he was looking for a torch.He did not find the torch, and wanted to walk to another bedroom when he stumbled over something and made the shock discovery.’I fell. But the lamp did not break. I saw a blue and orange blanket,’ Erasmus testified, fighting back tears.’I opened the first blanket and saw my father,’ he said. ‘His face was on the ground and the back of his head was turned up. I felt him, but he was cold.’When he lifted the other blanket as well, he saw his mother, Erasmus said.’I was confused and did not know what to do,’ he said.At first he tried to call the Police from the farm’s phone, but then realised that he did not know the correct number, he said.’I was scared. I did not know what was going on there,’ he said. He then ran out to his car and sped off, driving to Rehoboth, where he reported his discovery to the Police, Erasmus related.It was only after he had returned to the farm after daybreak that he heard from one of his father’s brothers and Police officers at the farm that more people had been killed, Erasmus said.He eventually managed to get hold of his sister, who was working at a lodge in the Karibib area, by telephone around midday, he said. He just asked her to get home immediately, but when she insisted on knowing what was going on, he broke the news that their parents were dead, Erasmus said.At this point in his testimony he again had to fight back tears.He could not remember saying anything to her when she arrived at his house in Windhoek late that afternoon, Erasmus related. ‘We embraced each other and just cried,’ he said.’To tell the truth, I cannot remember further. I was too sad,’ he said.Erasmus completed the first part of his testimony yesterday afternoon. He could start facing cross-questioning from defence lawyers Titus Ipumbu, representing Sylvester Beukes, Titus Mbaeva, who is appearing for Gavin Beukes, Boris Isaacks, representing Neidel, and Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef when the trial continues today.