SO MANY QUESTIONS

A Pretoria couple were found dead in their tent at a camping event now their children are looking for answers.

- KESHIA AFRICA

NOBODY paid attention to the couple as they pitched their green tent at the busy campsite. They were just two among many fanatics arriving at the farm near Clarens in the Free State, looking forward to a weekend of fun and adventure.

And as things swung into high gear for the first day of the Suzuki Jimny Gathering, nobody noticed Pretoria couple Sharon de Villiers (50) and Carl Koen (52) were absent from the activities.

For the rest of the weekend their tent remained zipped and their Jimny unmoved in the parking lot.

Only on Monday when everyone packed up to go home did people notice their tent was still pitched.

When a festival organiser went to check if anyone was around they found Carl and Sharon inside the tent. At first glance it appeared they were asleep but upon closer inspection it became clear both were dead.

Sharon’s daughter, Bianca van Eeden, could barely speak when Claren police called her in Alberton, Gauteng, where she lives.

She realized something was seriously wrong when she received a call from the cops because she knew Sharon and Carl were camping there.

“I thought perhaps they’d been in a car accident,” Bianca (27) tells us. “But when he said they had passed away, I couldn’t speak. I started shaking and my husband, Gerrit, had to continue the conversation.”

The Van Eedens made the three-and-half-hour drive from Alberton to Clarens. When they arrived they saw the single tent at the campsite and the khaki Suzuki Jimny the couple had arrived in.

“I saw the policemen standing outside their tent, but I thought it had to be some mistake,” Bianca recalls.

She looked inside the tent and says her mom and Carl looked as if they were asleep.