There was a stunned silence when Madeleen Bredenhann (29) was convicted in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday of hacking to death her mother, Elma Bredenhann, and her grandmother, Albertina (Dassie) Wambach.
Judge Chris Botha said that after evaluating all the evidence and possibilities, his opinion was that Bredenhann’s version must be rejected as false.
”The damning evidence of her mother’s blood on her clothes was not explained.
”The presence of the blood can only lead to one conclusion — that she was involved in the attack on her mother and grandmother.”
He rejected Bredenhann’s version that her uncle, Ludwig Wambach, was the killer.
The soft-spoken accused earlier testified that although he was masked at the time, she identified the man swinging the axe as her uncle.
Botha pointed out that Bredenhann told the police two weeks after the killings — and when she was arrested herself — that the ”true killer” was her uncle.
”This proves to me that it is a thought-out version to help her out of trouble,” the judge said.
He added that there was no logical reason why she did not earlier tell the police he was the murderer, if her story was indeed true.
Botha said Wambach is a strange person with a lot of ”twists”.
”It often appears as if he had a smile on his face and when he was asked questions, he was often quiet for a long time.
”But at the end of the day, it cannot be said that he failed in his evidence,” the judge said.
Botha said the accused, in giving evidence, stuck to her version that her uncle was the killer. When asked to explain, she often fell into a singsong repetition of her evidence, giving the impression she had memorised her version, he said.
When asked about her peculiar conduct after the killings, she often hid behind her excuse that she was traumatised and under medication at the time.
Botha, in summing up the evidence, several times used the word ”peculiar” in relation to the events of April 13 last year and thereafter.
Bredenhann’s mother and grandmother were killed in the early hours of April 13 last year in their home in Dorandia, Pretoria North. They were asleep in their beds when they were hacked to death with an axe. The bloody axe, bearing no fingerprints, was left on the pillow next to the body of the older woman.
No motive for the killings could be established, but the judge said the state did not have to prove either a motive or that someone else may also be involved in the incident.
Bredenhann’s father, Hansie, was devastated by the conviction. He said they will appeal after the sentencing of his daughter on November 29.
Other family members said they cannot believe that she was convicted ”for something she did not do”. — Sapa