The Henri I Know Is Innocent

Leenta Nel, sister of the late Teresa van Breda, talks to YOU about her belief in her nephew Henri van Breda’s version of events

- Joanie Bergh

COULD my sister have raised a killer?

Of course this thought has crossed her mind, she says – how could it not have?

“Yes, I have wondered: could it be a possibility?”

It’s a question many people want an answer to – an answer they’ll get once the court case involving Henri van Breda (22) finally comes to an end.

But for this woman, there’s a lot more at stake than curiosity and intrigue: the woman murdered alongside her husband and son that day was her sister.

Leenta Nel (63) now lives in Canada but she’s in South Africa for a few weeks to attend her nephew’s trial. The state alleges Henri axed his parents, Martin (54) and Teresa (55), and his brother, Rudi (22), to death and tried to kill his younger sister, Marli (then 16).

Since she arrived she’s often been told she looks and sounds like Teresa and it moves her every time she hears it. She misses her gentle-natured, cheerful younger sister more than words can express, she says over a cup of coffee at the V&A Waterfront after spending the day in court.

There’s something she wants to get off her chest straight away, she says suddenly.

“Although I may wonder if Henri could be responsible for murdering my sister as well as his dad and brother, I do know the person who did that definitely wasn’t the Henri I know.

“If it was him, something must have happened in his brain that night to make him act totally differently. Because the next morning, when my brother André [du Toit] saw Henri, he was his normal self. He was the Henri we’ve all known since he was little.”