“She still wants to know why he did it to her daughter, but she also said that she will pray for him.”
Anthea Thopps. Picture: Facebook
CAPE TOWN – The aunt of a woman killed in Beaufort West said on Tuesday it was time for her family to heal after her nieces murderer was sentenced.
The man convicted of raping and murdering Anthea Thopps in the Karoo town last July was sentenced to 25 years behind bars.
Jacobus Plaaitjies worked as a handy man for the deceased and knew her and her family well.
Geraldine Thopps said it was still difficult to come to terms with her niece’s murder, but at the very least her family was satisfied that justice was served.
Thopps said the fact the killer knew the family well was a bitter pill to swallow.
“I think that is the most difficult part, especially for the mother, who even said that she loved him like her own son… She still wants to know why he did it to her daughter, but she also said that she will pray for him.”
Plaaitjies admitted to smoking tik and mandrax with friends and when he needed money to buy more drugs, he remembered the deceased had an amplifier that he could steal and sell.
Plaaitjies broke into the woman’s house and dragged her to the living room where he choked her until she lost consciousness. She was was then raped and killed.
The man made off with two cellphones and the young mother’s handbag in which he found R200, which he spent on drugs.