He's Never Coming Home

Lenize recalls her last day with murdered boyfriend Brendin Horner and how they fell in love

- Jana Van Der Merwe

There are signs of him everywhere in the house: an old cap, his tools, his muddy work boots next to their double bed, his deodorant, an ashtray with cigarette butts.

The house itself is spar­sely furnished – they hadn’t got around to buying a lounge suite yet.

But they had big plans for the life they’d have together. He wanted to build a braai area in the backyard from wooden pal­ lets and he wanted a rose garden. And she wanted to fill the house with chil­dren one day.

Now all Lenize Taljaard’s dreams are in tatters, her heart broken. Her boyfriend, Brendin Horner, is dead, killed one night on the farm where he worked. His bloody body was discovered tied by the neck to a fence post, stab wounds in his head and chest, and he’d been strangled.

The murder of the 22­year­old farm­ worker in the district of Paul Roux in the eastern Free State has dominated head­ lines. Three men were arrested in the days that followed – two for Brendin’s murder and one, a former farmer, for at­tempted murder, public violence and in­citement to violence after he allegedly in­stigated a charge on the court in nearby Senekal when the two accused appeared.

He also allegedly tried to set fire to the holding cells where the two men were being held. Two shots were fired as the protesters charged the court buildings and police intervened.