Cape Town - Tears flowed in the Vredendal Circuit Court this week as a letter written by the heartbroken mother of slain teen Jerobejin van Wyk, describing her trauma, was read into the record.
One day after the court convicted Daniel Smit for the premeditated murder of the 13-year-old boy, his grieving mother, Triesa van Wyk, shared her experience with Judge Hayley Slingers, as she recalled the day her child was killed.
Smit was found guilty nearly two years after the murder, which rocked the Western Cape town of Klawer. Judge Slingers found that as the child was first kidnapped, Smit was guilty of premeditated murder.
Smit, who was dubbed the ‘Klawer killer’, went on trial at the Circuit Court in Vredendal last week, where he provided a graphic plea explanation describing how he broke the child’s neck and placed him in a freezer.
In her letter, Van Wyk said as the sole breadwinner in the home, she returned home and was told that her son was missing.
She said that after a sleepless night, she was informed that he had been murdered and her heart broke into a hundred pieces.
“Suddenly life didn’t make sense and not even my daughter could console me.”
In the letter she also addresses Smit and asks him: “I was there the day before, can you remember? I asked you where my child was. I can’t think how you in your capacity as a parent of a child could find it in your heart to murder another person’s child so brutally. My heart is sore because I will never understand what was going on in your head.”
Van Wyk said her life completely changed after Jerobejin’s death and she still placed a plate at the table for him.
She also described her visit to the mortuary and the shock and horror to discover her son’s body parts in plastic packets.
“On the day we were taken to the mortuary my expectation was to at least find a body, only to find a small plastic bag with body parts.”
In the tear-jerking letter, the mother begs Smit to tell her what her son’s last words were and if he called her name as he was dying.
“I still have sleepless nights. When I close my eyes I hear my child calling for me. I see how my child is cut up in pieces.
“Tomorrow appears impossible for me. To think I gave birth to a whole human body only to get it back in pieces.”
She concludes by asking the court to remove Smit from society, saying she will never forgive him.
Smit will be sentenced on Monday.
mahira.duval@inl.co.za
Cape Argus