From the doorway, it looked as though Inge Lotz was asleep, lying motionless with her brown hair tumbled over the arm of the couch. It was only from closer that the full and bloody horror of what had happened to the 22-year-old Stellenbosch student became apparent.
Lotz was allegedly bludgeoned to death in her flat with an ornamental hammer by former boyfriend Fred van der Vyver (24), who is now on trial in the Cape High Court.
On Tuesday afternoon, the court viewed a 23-minute video, taken by a police photographer only hours after the March 2005 killing. Judge Deon van Zyl, his assessors, the teams of lawyers and members of the public watched in total silence as the video unfolded.
The footage began outside the flat and moved in to a kitchen area. Then came a long shot of a couch in the lounge area where Lotz was lying. From there, the cameraman moved round for a frontal view of her body, and it was only then that her gore-splattered face, her blood-drenched top and the ghastly wounds she had suffered became apparent.
Her head was turned slightly towards the wall, her eyes open and her lips parted. The camera moved in on what appeared to be a gaping wound caused by a blunt object on her forehead, blood pooled in her left ear and another gaping wound on her chest.
In the bathroom, the video — all shot in absolute silence, bar the occasional sound of a car going by outside the flat — recorded a towel lying on the floor, with a reddish stain and a few strands of hair.
The camera also dwelt on a framed collection of photographs on one wall, one of them apparently of a smiling Lotz, who was a master’s degree student at Stellenbosch University, and Van der Vyver together.
Van der Vyver, sitting in the dock in a suit and tie, was unable to look at the most gruesome parts of the video, looking down and only occasionally glancing up.
Even hardened defence counsel Dup de Bruyn and some other members of the defence team were unable to watch all of the video footage. Van der Vyver’s father also averted his gaze.
The showing of the video was preceded, bizarrely enough, by a moment of humour.
The judge suggested that the overhead lights in the courtroom be turned off for the showing. His registrar went off into a corridor, flicked a switch and discovered that she had cut off all the electricity, including the supply to the laptop that was powering the video.
When the electricity was restored, it was discovered that the cut had also thrown the shorthand typist’s computer into a state that would require a technician to get it going again. Van Zyl said the video could go ahead in the interim.
Van der Vyver denies he killed Lotz, and says he was at work in Pinelands at the time. He is an actuarial assistant at Old Mutual.
The case continues on Wednesday. — Sapa