NELSPRUIT – “Michael will never come home to me again. I will never wake up to see his face again, yet they carry on with their lives as if nothing happened.” These were the words of the fiancée of Mr Michael Stenger (30) who was shot dead during a botched robbery.
Ms René Roestorf spoke to Lowvelder during the scheduled court appearance of Mr Charles Loram (59) who is being charged with culpable homicide after Stenger’s death on January 21 last year.
The case was postponed to May 28 next year due to Loram, owner of Sound Systems, being ill. His attorney, Mr Coert Jordaan presented a letter from the doctor to the court explaining why his client was not present.
Last year, this newspaper had reported that Loram sent a letter to the paper in which he described how he was battling to come to terms with what had happened.
He said four suspects entered the Sound Systems property on January 21 at about 09:00. Loram was apparently alarmed when the fourth man pulled a balaclava over his face before entering the office.
He confronted them with a revolver and fired shots. Stenger was hit in the process.
Loram went to fetch a pistol and proceeded to fire seven more shots at the assailants.
Roestorf said, “Michael and I woke up early that morning. He received a phone call saying he must come to work but it was his day off. Later I received a call to say I must go to the hospital and then straight afterwards another to say I must not go because didn’t make it.” She said she still hadn’t been told at that time what had happened.
Michael’s father, Mr Hans Stenger said he had heard three conflicting statements from Loram as to what had happened that fateful day. “First, he said he didn’t see Michael, then he said he saw him in the corner of his eye and the other was that the robber used Michael as a shield.” He said the suspects were apparently unarmed. “Who empties a 38 and a 9mm out, shooting through a closed door and windows into a room where you have the suspects cornered? Why didn’t he hit any of the multitude of panic buttons in his house for help instead?”
“I went to the crime scene the following morning and everything was spotless and cleaned up. How is it that, in the case of Oscar Pistorius, the crime scene was in place for two weeks afterwards?”
“We then went to the head of prosecution to complain that nothing had been done against Loram. “He was not arrested and neither were charges laid against him after six months.”
“Then when we asked why we were not to be witnesses in the case, the police told us our testimonies were hearsay. We spoke to Loram right after the incident.”
Stenger said there were no other witnesses besides Loram and the police, as far as the family knew.
“We just want the truth. In his letter he gave to Lowvelder at that time, he didn’t even mention an apology to us. All he spoke about, was the trauma of the death of his daughter. My son didn’t die in a car accident, my son was shot by him.” All family members confirmed that not once did Loram apologise to any of them for the death of Michael.
Roestorf also stated that prior to the death of Stenger, he had been unhappy working at Sound Systems and was looking for another job. She said she and Michael had planned their wedding for last year September. “We held his funeral at the venue where we were supposed to be married and everyone threw white roses into the river.”
• Loram was approached for comment, but declined due to his deteriorating health.
