Lauterbach Karl

The deadly encounter began when the elderly couple drove up to their homestead and were suddenly ambushed by a group of unknown attackers who had been waiting for their arrival. During the initial attack on the farm property, the assailants overpowered the couple, striking Karl Lauterbach violently over the head and ransacking the immediate area to steal six firearms. Rather than fleeing the scene with the stolen weapons, the perpetrators forced the injured man and his wife into their own vehicle and kidnapped them. The attackers drove the captive couple roughly forty kilometers away from the Waterval estate. Along the road, the criminals forced Karl Lauterbach out of the vehicle and shot him in the left side of his chest. They then turned their firearms on Hester Cathrina Lauterbach, shooting her three times. The bodies of both victims were left abandoned out in the open near the roadside where the final executions took place. The discovery of the abandoned vehicle and the bodies sent deep shockwaves through the Greytown agricultural community during a period of intense pre-election socio-political volatility across the Natal region.