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Home / Devastated suicide-murder families recount deceased’s last moments
Devastated suicide-murder families recount deceased’s last moments
2016-10-05Staff Report 2 "Keetmanshoop Sunday started just like any other normal day but little did friends and family know that this was to be the last moments for the young couple. They spent the day together at the deceased woman’s grandparents’ house, but at around 20h35 Adriaan Dominikus, 29, shot and killed Constancia Christiaans, 26, and then drove to his parents’ house where he proceeded to fatally shoot himself in the head inside his car, in full view of his family. New Era spoke to the two families, and as they struggled for words to describe what had transpired that Sunday it was clear that none of them had expected the worst. The deceased woman’s aunt, Salomia Christiaans, 39, who first saw the lifeless body of her niece lying on the kitchen floor, told New Era that everyone was in the house minding their business when they suddenly heard gunshots. She said the two deceased were outside talking and an argument started. The man slapped the woman, and she poured water on him in retaliation, and that’s when he took out his gun, shot her and then drove away. Christiaans said the family is still trying to come to terms with the fact that their daughter is gone and never coming back, adding that the deceased’s little daughter constantly seeks her mother and she can’t find the right words to tell her that she will never see her again. “When I came back from hospital her child asked me where her mother was and why I hadn’t come back with her from the hospital. I just don’t know how to tell her,” she sadly said. She also said the two, who were known as a couple, were not dating at the time of the incident, saying they had ended their relationship after the man admitted that he had impregnated another girl. But the man, she said, seemed to have not come to terms with the relationship having ended, as he would always accuse her of having other men and get jealous when she received calls, especially from men. The deceased man’s uncle, Hendrik Titus, 54, told New Era that he and the entire family are still shocked, saying the incident is unlike of their son who was known to be a man of few words and who would usually walk away from any situation or argument. He indicated that the picture of the deceased shooting himself in the car in front of his parents and family members would be hard to erase for many years to come. He narrated that upon hearing what his nephew had done he quickly drove to his brother’s house, and as he was about to get into his car to go and look for the deceased hoping to take the pistol away from him, the deceased arrived in his car and parked by the gate. But it was too little too late, he says, as he heard people screaming and asking what the deceased was about to do and that’s when he rushed out of his car to try and stop him from shooting himself. “As I ran towards his car he had already pulled the trigger but the gun jammed, and as I was about to grab the pistol away from his head he pulled the trigger again and shot himself,” he said. Titus further said the suicide left the parents of the late very traumatised and they were the first to be taken to hospital, while their son was still waiting for the police with a bullet to the head. Although it’s not really clear what had caused the shooting and suicide, with some saying it’s a jealous rage, the deceased woman’s last two Facebook posts appear to be complaining about someone addicted to her, and constantly accusing her of seeing other men behind his back. “Og. Hu op a mens manne gee eto,” reads her last post in Afrikaans on Sunday morning before being shot, which simply means ‘stop giving me men’, to which the deceased man commented in Afrikaans, “prat kak”. While her earlier status on Saturday reads “When u are obsessed with someone and think u luv the person. Dan kom da kak.” Both deceased worked at the Neckartal Dam project near Keetmanshoop. " 2016-10-05Staff Report 2
