Mail & Guardian reporter
Dancer Colin Myburgh may have been planning to murder the director of the Johannesburg Dance Theatre, Grayham Davies, when he stabbed and killed colleague Paula Preller in a fit of rage as she tried to stop him, it emerged this week.
Colleagues say that Myburgh, who had recently been involved in a violent argument with Davies during which a punch was thrown, had threatened to harm the director.
When Myburgh arrived at the Wits Theatre last Thursday and told Preller of his intentions, she attempted to talk him out of it. Myburgh got hold of a bread knife from the kitchen staff and the two may have struggled with it during a heated argument in their dressing room.
Preller (27) was fatally stabbed in the chest and back. A letter addressed to Davies was found beside the body.
Myburgh, who escaped by jumping three floors out of a window on to Daviess car, was found hanging from a nylon rope around his neck in a manhole at the University of the Witwatersrand, almost a week after the murder. His body apparently had several puncture wounds to his chest.
He is believed to have committed suicide soon after the murder by climbing into the 5m-deep manhole only 80m from the rear entrance of the Wits Theatre in Jorissen Street, soon after realising what he had done.
Police have confirmed that they are investigating the possibility that Davies was the intended target. That is one of the possibilities, amongst others, that we are looking into regarding the murder, said police representative Inspector Andy Pieke.
Detectives are also looking into rumours that Myburghs personality had been affected by steroids he may have been taking.
We have had several theories about what might have triggered this tragedy, said Pieke. The people these two danced with have been very helpful in telling us what they know, but its going to take a lot of sorting out to find out exactly what happened that day.
Pieke said that Myburghs American wife, Nancy, had feared that her husband would kill himself and police had been scouring mortuaries for his body since his disappearance after the killing.
No one at the theatre would comment. A woman who answered the phone said: We might issue a statement next week, but we have been asked by Colins wife not to say anything yet and we are respecting her wishes. An inquest is to be held.