The trial of the remaining three accused in the Krugersdorp murders case, Cecilia Steyn, Marcel Steyn and Zac Valentine, continued in the South Gauteng High Court this week with Marinda Steyn being called to the stand shortly after her “best friend” Cecilia’s testimony concluded today.
To read about her testimony, click here
News journalist Natasha Pretorius was in court when Marinda Steyn took the stand, saying “She [Cecilia] is my very best friend,” and claimed that the feeling is mutual. She then described Cecilia as “having very poor health”.
In May, Marinda was sentenced to 11 life sentences and 115 years’ imprisonment, all to run concurrently. She will spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Read about her sentencing here
Marinda met Cecilia in 2007/ 2008 through Ria Grunewald. Marinda said she believes Cecilia picked up an incurable disease while in hospital and that is why she is always sick. She also said she lived with Cecilia because it was convenient and not because she had to take care of her. She believed Cecilia to be a very strong Christian and did not know about her past as a Satanist or her abusive childhood.
When she was questioned about Cecilia’s personalities, she said she could identify four of them.
“She wore her cap to the front. When the cap was turned back, her personality changed. I said ‘Hey, who are you?’ and she said ‘None of your business’.”
When asked about her son, Le Roux, she said he was lying in his testimony, “and he lives in a world of his own”.
“They said they did it; they killed her,” she said, referring to Mikeila and Zak. “I told them to get rid of anything that can lead to you.”
“Mikeila only hit Joy [Bonzaaier] over the head with a hammer and ran away. Zak then had to go and cut her throat to kill her,” she said.
Marinda then unemotionally described how she stabbed Pastor Reg Bendixen to death, assisting Zak.
Marinda said she did not like Reg because he had an effect on Ria, he made her bitter and stole her sermons. She and Zak went to the Bendixen’s house and introduced themselves as police. She said Zak stood behind him with an axe, and she gave him the signal. Zak struck him from behind and did not stop. She then told him to stop because she wanted to stab him. She said she stabbed Reg while Zak kept on hitting, almost hitting her in the process. She then stabbed him in the neck to see if any blood would come gushing out. That way she would know he was dead.
When questioned about the Meyers’ murders, Marinda said, “We were supposed to give them financial advice. The plan was to rob them, kill them, and throw them in the pool. At the meeting I had a gun. I took it out and told them to get down. We weren’t supposed to kill them. Zak went berserk and started stabbing them.”
Marinda said that Zak did not want go for a lie detector test about the Meyers’ murders [if ever he got caught] and thought that by faking his own death he would not be found. “He wanted to go live in a little house by the sea.”
To read about Zak’s fake death, click here
Marinda said Cecilia did not know of anything going on at the time. She [Marinda] said that she was scared that Le Roux would tell Cecilia about everything, “That’s when the nightmare started. That’s when I knew it was getting out of hand”.
When she was asked about Le Roux she said he was jealous of his sister Marcel, “ever since she was born”.
“We played Halloween, like in the movies.” There was no connection with the occult, Marinda claimed. “We had great fun playing,” she said, going on to say that she used to say that even Christians can dress up like this (referring to the image of them with ‘devil’ contact lenses on).
Court has adjourned for the day. Looking back, Marinda’s testimony seemed rehearsed, and she constantly denied all allegations directed at Cecilia Steyn.
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