Murdered Mom Remembered

Three heartbroken daughters and a friend mourn the mysterious death of ‘kind, funny’ Susan Rohde.

- Charlea Sieberhagen & Hilda Van Dyk

IT’S a case that has the whole of South Africa talking: a beautiful blonde woman found dead, hanging from an electric cord in the bathroom of a fancy hotel suite in the Cape Winelands. The bathroom door locked from the inside and her husband, who was sharing the suite, claiming not to have heard a thing.

At first glance it appeared to have been a suicide but just a few days after Susan Rohde’s funeral, the police announced they’re treating her death at the Spier Hotel close to Stellenbosch as a murder. They say evidence suggests someone strangled the 47-year-old with their bare hands, Netwerk24 reported.

The mystery deepens. Times Live reports that the night before the tragedy she and her husband, Jason Rohde (also 47), CEO of Geffen International Realty Franchises, a franchise division within Sotheby’s SA, were reportedly overheard arguing in the bar of the hotel where his company was holding its annual conference.

Other media claim there are rumours of an extramarital affair. Susan reportedly suspected Jason of having a fling with an “attractive estate agent” who works in Sotheby’s in Sea Point, Cape Town, Netwerk24 reports. However there’s no evidence to confirm these allegations.

Jason’s lawyer, Daniel Witz, tells YOU the couple’s row in the bar wasn’t about an alleged affair. “It was an argument about whether to return to the room or stay with their friends and colleagues at the bar,” he says. “Susan said everyone had had enough to drink and that it was time to go back to the rooms.”

According to Afrikaans newspaper Rapport “sources close to the investigation” claim that in the week leading up to the conference at Spier the couple spent time in Cape Town to discuss their marriage problems.