“Not my son,” screamed Vanecia Becker, the fiancée of David Brody, as David’s father, Johan (64), walked towards her son’s bedroom in the early hours of the morning of June 5 after he had just murdered his own three children, David (38), Tanya (37) and Annamarie (35).
Frantically she got to the phone and called a friend to come to the house in Shrike Street, Elspark, immediately, to help them get away.
And when he heard her on the phone, Johan allegedly walked away from the child’s room, went back into the main house and shot himself.
Vanecia told the GCN that a few minutes before this, Johan had been standing at the foot of her bed, telling her to get out immediately, otherwise he was going to shoot her and her son, Kian Brody (9).
“I will never forget the way he spoke to me and the look in his eyes and on his face,” Vanecia said.
“It was a look of pure hate.
“When I close my eyes that is all I see.
“I started screaming hysterically, saying not David, and he said it was too late, he had already killed them all.”
Vanecia, who was busy planning a June wedding next year to the love of her life, David, doesn’t know what triggered the horrific events of June 5.
The couple had been together for 11 years.
David, Vanecia and Kian (a Laerskool Elspark learner) lived in a three-bedroom flat on Johan’s property in Elspark.
They had built the flat eight years ago.
“David wanted to be close to his parents as his mom, Aletta, was not well and he felt he should be close by to look after her and Johan,” Vanecia said.
“Sadly, Aletta succumbed to her illness in October 2016 and passed away.
“We continued to take care of Johan, as did David’s sisters, Tanya and Annamarie.
“David’s sisters stayed in the main house with their father.”
Vanecia told the GCN that David was always concerned about his father.
Sometimes when they would go and visit Vanecia’s mom, Dawn, he would ask her if he could take a plate of food home for his dad.
“He was always thinking about his father,” Vanecia said.
“We all communicated well with each other, except Johan would often push us away.
“And when the company Johan worked for went into liquidation, all the children, who were all employed, gave him R2 000 a month each to pay his bills.
“We were always there to help him.”
Vanecia added that over the last few weeks Johan had shown signs of depression and that about two weeks ago he had taken an overdose of tablets. David assisted him through this.
“We set up counselling for him with our pastor, but when it came time to go he told us it was a waste of time and he refused to go.
“He also always told us he didn’t have time for religion, so I don’t understand all the religious social media posts he was making.
“So we just started monitoring him closely and kept asking him if everything was okay, to which he would respond everything was fine.”
Then, in the early hours of June 5, Johan called David and told him to take Vanecia and Kian to Dawn’s house.
“David couldn’t hear his father properly, so he went into the main house to ask him what he should do.
“I was in bed and heard David coming out of the main house, then a gunshot rang out.
“I heard David going back inside the main house and I heard another gunshot.
“A few minutes later Johan was standing by my bed and I knew he had shot David,” Vanecia said.
Now Vanecia has to live without her partner, and Kian, without his father.
She said there are no other family members left on the Brody side. It is just her and Kian.
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“Kian keeps asking me when his daddy is going to come home and if he is going to be dead forever,” said a distraught Vanecia.
“It is his birthday on July 7 and we had bought him a go-kart. Now he keeps saying his daddy needs to come home to give it to him.
“I don’t know how he is going to handle his birthday without his father there.”
Vanecia told the GCN that she does not think the horror of the murders has sunk in yet.
“I am still waiting for David to come home.
“This is extremely difficult for me and my child,” she said.
Both Vanecia and Kian are undergoing trauma counselling.
Vanecia is trying to arrange the funerals for David, Annamarie and Tanya.
“I will have a separate funeral for David and then a combined one for his sisters,” she said.
“However, there is a strike at the Germiston mortuary so we are still waiting for the bodies to be released.”
Vanecia told the GCN that David’s company said he had a very promising future and had set high standards.
“He always put his happiness second to others’.
“He was a wonderful partner and father and I don’t how we are going to carry on,” Vanecia said.
A murder docket and a suicide docket were registered at the Elsburg Police Station. The police said that at this stage the motive for the murders and suicide are unknown.
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