Cruel details of the murder of young teacher Allison Plaatjies, 26, came to light on Wednesday in Clanwilliam, Western Cape.
Sources familiar with the investigation say her suspected killer, Philip April, 24, stabbed her face and body with two different knives.
He stabbed so hard that the handle of one knife broke off.
The blade was found in her chest. April appeared in Clanwilliam Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, where he initially wanted to apply for bail. However, he eventually decided against it.
Her body was found on Sunday, October 27, shortly after 7 pm, in the garden flat she rented in Clanwilliam, by people searching for her. According to sources, April also repeatedly punched her in the face.
The sources say the bones in front of her throat protruded. Plaatjies and April met on the Mowbray campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (KSUT) about three years ago.
Both were undergraduate students. She started teaching at Sederberg Primary School in Clanwilliam in January this year.
Plaatjies’ mother, Yvonne, her aunt Liezel and a family friend also attended the court proceedings.
Yvonne and Liezel were both wearing T-shirts with Plaatjies’s face and her date of birth and death. Yvonne said she was not ready to talk to the media yet.
April family members took their place on one side of the courtroom. A woman in a denim shirt entered the court, forced her way to the front bench and told courtiers who did not want to make room for her, saying: “Make room, I have to, I’m an April, make room. “
The woman and other courtiers who supported April also threatened two female journalists for taking their cell phones and hitting them.
