The Rumours Are 'Preposterous'

Eloise le Roux says she’s had enough of rumours about her and husband Danie and the couple who died in a Wellington fire.

- Marelize Potgieter

A MAN with a ponytail filling a canister with petrol at a filling station, a suspicious looking vehicle driving around with its headlights switched off not far from where a seemingly happy young couple burnt to death in the middle of the night . . .

These are the latest reports to emerge in the jumble of rumours surrounding the death of Jacques and Sunita van Dyk.

Paarl teacher Sunita (31) and her 30-year-old husband died on 10 May along with their dog, Skollie, when their house on a farm near Wellington burnt to the ground. And the gossip that flared almost as soon as the fire’s last embers were doused shows no sign of dying down.

Another couple’s names have become entangled with the tragedy. Danie le Roux (44), headmaster of Paarl Gymnasium Primary School where Sunita worked, and his wife, Eloise (36), have been the talk of the town since that fateful night.

First it was claimed Danie and Sunita were having an affair. Then Eloise was alleged to have been obsessed with Sunita – allegations that gained traction when letters the two women wrote to each other came to light (YOU, 29 June).

Now barely a day goes by without new rumours making headlines. These reports seem to insinuate Danie and Eloise had a hand in the Van Dyks’ horrible demise – and Eloise is at her wits’ end.

“How can they accuse us of murder? It’s preposterous,” says Eloise, who runs a baby clinic in Paarl with her mom, Mariana Symington.

The police autopsy has confirmed that although Sunita died of smoke inhalation, she also had a bruised neck.

Jacques’ family have engaged a private investigator to establish if there was any foul play.