One Tragic Night (77 page)
Authors: Mandy Wiener
Oscar rushed back upstairs into the bathroom, picked Reeva up and carried her down the stairs. It was at this point that Johan Stander and his daughter Carice Viljoen arrived.
I do not recall carrying her some of the way, but I remember getting to the second flight of stairs and Mr Stander and his daughter Ms Stander [Carice Viljoen] arrived. At that point, I was shouting and screaming for him to help me get her to the hospital. When I got down to the bottom of the flight of stairs, either Mr Stander or Carice Stander told me to put Reeva down. They said: That the ambulance was on its way. Before I put her down, I said to them: That we need to get to the hospital ⦠we need to get to the hospital. They said: Just put her down, the ambulance is on its way. And then, I just sat there with her and I waited for the ambulance to arrive and ⦠I felt helpless. I wanted to take her to the hospital and it was ⦠I had my fingers in her mouth to help her try breath[e]. I had my hand on her hip, I was trying to stop the bleeding.
Oscar breathed deeply and audibly and then explained how they tried to stop the bleeding with towels and black bags.
I was trying to hold Reeva's hip with my hand to put pressure on it so that ⦠so that it stop bleeding as much. Ms Stander asked me if I had any tape or any rope or anything like that, so the she could ⦠so that she could tie on Reevas ⦠tie her arms in order not to bleed as much. I do not remember ⦠I do not remember if I went to collect the ⦠the ⦠there is a cabinet in my pantry, that has got all the type of utility things one would use in a house, like tape and bags and things. I do not know if I went and fetch them or if Ms Stander went and fetch them.
Advocate Roux proceeded to lead Oscar through the next few moments as he remembered them, crying throughout his testimony.
âDid the paramedics arrive at the scene? Or first Dr Stipp?' asked Roux.
There was a ⦠there was a person that arrived at the house. Carice came in and she said to me that there is a Doctor and I immediately felt relieved. I looked up and I saw a person walking into my house. He was later ⦠I later found out it was Doctor Stipp. I still do not remember his face or what he looked like. Once he came into the house, I remember me crying for him to help me, to help Reeva. He did not seem like he knew what he was doing. He did not seem like he ⦠he seemed to be overwhelmed by the ⦠by the situation. Everything he told me to do, I was already doing. I was already trying to stop the bleeding, I was already trying help Reeva breath[e]. He kneeled down on her ⦠on her right hand side for a couple of minutes I think and then ⦠I do not remember seeing him again. He walked outside and he was outside. I was shouting for him to come back into the house and help me. But ⦠the paramedics then arrived. They asked for some space to work, so I stood up.
âDid you still remain there or did you go somewhere else? Can you remember going to the kitchen?' enquired Roux. Oscar's answer followed a long pause.
Reeva ⦠Reeva had already died whilst I was holding her. Before the ambulance arrived, so I knew there was nothing that they could do for her.
âDid you at some stage go to the kitchen?' Roux tried again.
I am ⦠I stood back when they arrived and I stood a couple of metres away from them. It is a open plan home so I stood at the ⦠couple of metres away, where the dining room and the kitchen kind of meet and then the lady paramedic came to me and she said to me: That she would like to inform me that Reeva has passed. The paramedic asked me for identification, if there was some form of ID. So I went and I got Reeva's handbag in my ⦠it was in my ⦠in my bedroom. I did not go through her handbag I just simply picked it up, walked into the room and got her handbag and brought it out. Ms Stander was waiting there on the first floor outside my room and I gave her ⦠I gave the handbag to her. I then went with Ms Stander downstairs to ⦠where the paramedics were. I sat in the kitchen on the floor, crying. Against the ⦠there [is] a island in the kitchen, serving counter and I sat there and then I do not know how much time passed. But at that point a police, or some police officers arrive shortly thereafter.
âDo you know who it was?' Roux pressed.
There were two officers. They were not dressed in police clothing. They were dressed in civilian clothing. I think the one officer had shorts on and the other one ⦠the were just both casually dressed and then, it was Colonel Van Rensburg who arrived, I think at more or less the same time. He came up to me and he introduced himself. I was at that point unable to speak with him. I was just sitting on the floor crying. Some time had passed then he ⦠a police officer asked me to just stay in the kitchen. I saw the one police officer was standing nearby at the bottom of the stairs. Another police officer asked me if there was anybody else in the house and I just motioned to him that there was not. He proceeded to check the bottom of the home. He then went upstairs and then he came downstairs. I did not have my head up much and I was not in sight of the staircase but at times I could not sit.
With Reeva dead, Oscar remained in the kitchen, throwing up from time to time, as more people arrived on the scene.
Every time I looked up, there were more people in the house. There were
more policemen. There were people going up and down the stairs. I was standing in the kitchen against the ⦠where the far side of the kitchen is, away from the dining room where there is prep bowl small sink and I asked a policeman if I may wash my hands. Because the smell of the blood was making [me] throw up and he said he would ask and Mr Van Rensburg, Colonel Van Rensburg came back to me and he said [to] me, I may wash my hands. I do not remember washing my chest. I just remember washing my hands and washing my face. At that point I was still standing in the kitchen and I saw Mr Hilton ⦠Hilton Botha arrived. He came in straight from the front door up to me. He asked me if I remember him. He immediately from where I was, he went upstairs. He came downstairs some time later. At the time I was in the kitchen, I could not look around the corner. Because every time I saw Reeva, I got sick. So I stayed ⦠stayed more inside the kitchen and at a time ⦠and a time I went and sat in the pantry against the washing machine.
âCan you remember the photographer that arriv[ed]?' Roux guided him.
I was ⦠I was still in the kitchen. It was some time and Mr Botha came downstairs, when he went up the second time Mr Van Re ⦠Colonel Van Rensburg came up to me and he said to me that, he put his hand on my shoulder and he said to me that I do not have to speak to anyone but I need to go to the garage. They would like to take some photos. There will be a police photographer. I think the same officer that was standing at the bottom of the staircases ⦠staircase, he followed me with Mr Van Rensburg to the ⦠to the garage. There was a police officer that stayed in the garage the whole time. I think it was the same gentleman who was at the bottom of the staircase and I was in the garage for several hours. I asked the police photographer if he could just please take all the photos he needed so I could take my clothes off because they were also stained.
âAnd from the garage, where did you go to?' asked Roux.
From the garage I was taken to the foyer of the reception area of my home and a police officer, surname Labuschagne, came up to me. He introduced himself. He told me he was a friend of a family member of mine and that I did not have anything to worry about. I must just ⦠he was there to look after me. It was at that point that Colonel Van
Rensburg said to me that because I was the only person in the house, that they are going to charge me. He charged me at the time, he said to me that I was under arrest.
Roux then began to build the timeline around Oscar's version that would be so crucial to the defence case. Through Oscar's evidence, he laid the foundation.
| Roux: | In relation to time, if I may take you through times that we could establish by virtue of the telephone records. We know there was a time 03:17 where witnesses, there is a variation but where ⦠if I look at Doctor Stipp's evidence and Ms Stipp's evidence, where they heard the sound ⦠three sounds, doef, doef, doef. Which to them resembled firearm shots and then we know at 03:19, approximately two minutes later, you made a call to Mr Stander. Do you have any idea, on your version, the three sounds, what would that represent by 03:17? |
| Accused: | M'Lady, I ⦠the three sounds would have been the cricket bat hitting the door. |
| Roux: | But if the 03:17 you say, were you walking in the bathroom shortly before you hit the cricket bat? |
| Accused: | Yes, M'Lady. I was walking ⦠I was walking through the bathroom when I went to go and kick the door, when I went to go and fetch the cricket bat, I was walking through the bath ⦠through the bathroom with my prosthetic legs on. |
| Roux: | Doctor Stipp and Ms Stipp also gave evidence about prior shots. You hear that in court? |
| Accused: | I did, M'Lady. |
| Roux: | What would that have been? |
| Accused: | That would have been firing my pistol, Ma'am. M'Lady. |
Oscar had walked the court and the world through those dramatic moments and had recounted in extraordinary detail the moment he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp. With his full version now before the court, his testimony would have to withstand the extreme test of cross-examination.
Samantha Taylor woke up and looked at her phone. There were multiple missed calls and messages piling up on the screen.
âRest in peace,' she read, to her horror. Over and over again.
It was Valentine's Day and news had broken early that morning that Oscar Pistorius had shot dead his girlfriend. Taylor had dated the runner until November the previous year and, in the confusion, many assumed it was she who was the âblonde victim'.
She was horrified by the news. Her immediate thought was that it was Jenna Edkins, another of Oscar's ex-girlfriends. It was only when she switched on the TV that she discovered it was Reeva.
âMy first impression ⦠I didn't think it was Reeva. I thought it was Jenna and when I phoned my mom I said to her, “I didn't actually know he was still with Reeva.”'
The soft-spoken 20-year-old, who put her marketing studies on hold to become a life coach following the trauma of the shooting, cast her mind back to that February morning in an interview with us.
âMy first thought was everybody has a gun for a reason, and that reason is to eventually use the gun. So I was thinking, “Oh my goodness, he's used his gun on a human.” When they said it was an intruder, I mean, I can't say what happened that night. I don't think the truth â the real truth â would ever come out because there are three sides to every story, so unfortunately, I don't know what happened that night, but I can only tell from my experience.'
Taylor's experience was dramatic. And explosive.
She met Oscar in 2010 at a Springbok rugby game at Loftus Versveld Stadium when she was only 16 years old. âIt was a bit of a random meeting because the
electricity had just gone out and we were just waiting in the cafeteria to get drinks and food and, you know, you end up making conversation with everyone around you. I thought he was very good looking, but I didn't actually know who he was. He was very vibrant, very charming. And he had quite a good sense of humour.' After someone pointed out his celebrity status, she Googled him to find out more details.
They were both in relationships at the time â Oscar was still dating Edkins. Around a year later, Taylor received a Facebook invite from him.
âWe started chatting a lot over Facebook and he had ended his relationship and coincidentally I had also ended my relationship. He was overseas at the time, doing season training and we started talking on the phone a lot and it was like we almost became best friends,' she recalled. When he arrived home, he went to visit her and the relationship blossomed.
Taylor's mother, Trish, was charmed by Oscar. âWhen they first started dating, I was absolutely fine with it. He and I got on really well and ⦠he was very, very nice. I found him very well-mannered, very softly spoken. He would often just sit and we would chat about stuff. Like when he went on an overseas trip he would come back and show me all his photographs. He had a good sense of humour, so we really welcomed him into our family, I must say, quite quickly.'
Taylor and Oscar were together for the next year and a half. During this time the couple grew close and Taylor spent up to four nights a week at his Silver Woods home. Oscar stayed over in Dainfern, too, and in this period Taylor got to know his family fairly well.
âDo you know, Arnold said in an interview that he had never met any of Oscar's previous girlfriends, but I had actually gone to Arnold's house many times before,' insisted Taylor. âWe used to go there after gym in the morning and have egg and toast either with his cousins or with his aunt. Arnold was often there. He showed me around the house so I know exactly what the house looks like. He used to take me down to the pond at the bottom where they had some swans. I know he earns a lot of money. He's got a very big house, he's got nice cars so he's definitely very wealthy and I'm sure whatever business he has I'm sure he's a very powerful man.'
But she said Oscar and his uncle Arnold weren't close. âThey didn't seem to have a great relationship, but I know he got along with his cousins quite well. His sister and him had a very good relationship, they loved each other so much and she was such a good support for him. She's very quiet and very soft, so he was very gentle with his sister. Him and his brother also had a good relationship but I think they clashed quite a bit. I think they were doing a bit of business together
and there was, you know, a bit of a rocky relationship as well, but they were quite close. Him and his father, he never spoke about his father, he told me they never had a good relationship. I don't know anything about his father.'
