“She was our only child,” the sobbing mother of a young Brymore woman who was stabbed to death by an intruder said last night.
Kelly Bain, 26, was on maternity leave at home with her one-month-old baby when the killer struck on Wednesday, stabbing her in the neck.
The domestic worker, who was busy in the bathroom and heard Bain’s screams, found when she tried to go out that she had been locked inside.
But Bain’s fiancé arrived at their Shabani Road townhouse moments later and grappled in the bedroom with the lone assailant, who managed to break free and escape over the boundary wall.
A neighbour alerted the police and emergency services rushed to the home.“I came home to pay our domestic worker and as I walked into the house, this guy walked into me,” Bain’s devastated fiancé, Christopher Bonus, 34, said.
“We got into a fight and then he scuttled out of the house. I ran after him but he got away.
“We have been together for almost two years – I can’t believe such a perfect little person could be taken away like this.”There were heartbreaking scenes of raw grief outside the townhouse later, as Bonus and Bain’s distraught parents cried and comforted each other.
Police said the baby had been found unharmed inside.
She was later taken to her paternal grandparents’ home.
Police spokesperson Captain Johan Rheeder said Bain was inside the house with the domestic worker when the intruder entered at about 1pm.
“The domestic worker was busy cleaning in the bathroom when she heard screaming.
“She went to open the door to get out of the bathroom but found that it was locked.”
Rheeder said during the scuffle with Bonus, the suspect broke free and jumped over the back boundary wall into the Baakens River Valley area.
According to a detective on the scene, the alleged attacker was caught on a neighbour’s CCTV footage being picked up in a vehicle a few metres away.
Bain’s devastated parents, Roy, 70, and Judi, 61, of Ben Kamma, held on to each other as police combed the scene.“I had spoken to her shortly before we received the news,” Judi said.
“I had been on my way to visit her at home, but she told me that Chris was coming home for his lunch break.
“Christopher called my husband [a short while later] and my husband came home and told me what had happened.
“I was in total disbelief, I couldn’t believe this was happening. I don’t have words to explain how I am feeling right now, we are all still in shock.
“She was my life, she was the oxygen I breathed. She was my angel, my baby girl.”Roy said Bain’s five-year-old daughter, who lives with him and his wife, was very close to her mother.
Neighbour Hans Frahm, 70, who called the police, said he had seen Bonus run into the road, screaming for help.
Frahm had been sitting in his office when he saw Bonus run past.
“That’s when I jumped up and ran outside to find out what was going on.”
A highly stressed Bonus yelled that an intruder had been inside his home and shouted for help.
“He said ‘get your gun’, so I returned armed, but by the time I got outside the guy had already fled.”
Frahm, who has lived in Brymore for 15 years, said break-ins were rife in the area. He had experienced two house robberies in the past two years.
“Since I have been here, this is the first murder in the complex,” he said
“I am not happy at all about it – it makes me feel unsafe.
“It just goes to show that we need to upgrade our security even more.”Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga said a search was under way for the perpetrator.
“We have video footage and an apt description of the suspect,” Ntshinga said.
“We appeal to the community to assist us in tracing this suspect.
“We cannot allow ruthless criminals to enter our premises and attack innocent people.
“They must be arrested and placed behind prison bars.
“We extend our condolences to the family of this young mother and assure the community that we will do everything in our power to apprehend the perpetrator.”
At the Lorraine Neighbourhood Watch annual general meeting on Wednesday night, ward 8 councillor Gustav Rautenbach called for a moment of silence for Bain and 86-yearold Ann Smit – who was bludgeoned with a hammer by two men in her Kamma Park home two months ago.Smit died in hospital four weeks later from the head injuries she sustained in the May 28 attack.
Speaking at the couple’s home earlier in the day, Rautenbach said: “We are a community in crisis with violent crimes getting out of hand.
“The number of attacks, especially on women in our area, is very concerning.
“I am speechless.
“I am sad and at the same time also very upset – to take the life of a 26-year-old mother of two small children was totally unnecessary.
“The authorities need to step up and increase security in this area.”