Clinging desperately to her slit throat and doused in paint thinners, a Port Elizabeth woman watched helplessly as her brother unsuccessfully attempted to set her alight with matches soaked in so much blood they had become too wet to ignite.

Sandra Coetzee, who witnessed Maurice Pirzenthal hack their elderly mother to death before taking his own life, battles to tell her story two years on — not only because of the emotional trauma she continues to suffer as a result of the horror attack, but because her vocal cords were severed and she can no longer control the pitch of her voice...