Fourie Johannes "Johan"

Age 71. The attack unfolded after the elderly couple returned home from town, where they had attended a Sunday church service and enjoyed a lunchtime braai with their children. Unbeknownst to them, three perpetrators had gained entry to the main homestead earlier in the day by breaking through a bathroom window and thoroughly ransacking the property while drinking alcohol inside the house while waiting for the owners to return. When the couple walked into the house, they were blindsided, cornered, and subjected to what veteran detectives described as one of the most gruesome crime scenes they had ever encountered in the province. Both victims were shot and brutally assaulted with an axe and a spade. Paramedics and neighboring farmers discovered a trail of blood leading from the living room into the bedroom, where both victims were found dead after missing a standard evening security call on the regional rural safety radio network. [1] (https://www.news24.com/trail-of-blood-in-free-state-farmers-home-20120910), [2] (https://www.georgeherald.com/News/Article/National-News/judgment-starts-in-trompsburg-farm-murder-case-20170711), [3] (https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news/horrific-farm-murder-in-trompsburg-tau-sa), [4] (https://www.sowetan.co.za/news/2013-05-07-trompsburg-man-guilty-of-farm-murders/)An intensive follow-up investigation by a specialist detective attached to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) revealed that the perpetrators belonged to a localized gang terrorizing the area. Three suspects from the local township were swiftly arrested by the South African Police Service: Moeketsi MacDonald Hlaasa, Nkululeko Mvumvu (aged 26), and Phineas Touto Mothibi (aged 29), who was a farm worker on the property. The criminal prosecution proceeded to the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein. Moeketsi Hlaasa chose to plead guilty early in the trial. His case was separated, and he was convicted and sentenced to two life imprisonment terms before testifying as a state witness against the others. On Tuesday, May 7, 2013, Judge Albert Kruger delivered the final verdict, finding Nkululeko Mvumvu guilty of murder and housebreaking with intent to rob, while the farm worker Phineas Mothibi was acquitted on all counts due to insufficient evidence directly placing him at the scene during the physical executions