By Helen Bamford
Cape Town family murder survivor Debbie Adlington says she will never know what made her husband Tony snap, bludgeon their three children to death with an axe, half kill her and take his own life.
In the first interview since the tragedy that wiped out her family, she told the Weekend Argus this week that the unanswered questions would haunt her forever.
"When you've been with a guy for 18 years you can never expect it. Had I known, I would have taken the children and run away. Sometimes, I think I should have left years ago."
| 'Sometimes, I think I should have left years ago' |
Adlington is still in Conradie Hospital but recovering remarkably well from the horrendous axe wounds in the head inflicted by her husband.
She still has no feeling in her left arm and, as she talks, she constantly clasps her hands together.
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Otherwise she appears confident and strong, overcome by emotion only when she mentions her children.
She examines a pill brought to her by a nurse for a slight allergy she has developed, before popping it into her mouth.
"They wanted to put me on anti-depressants or sedate me but I said no way."
| 'It would take a lot to ever trust a man again' |
The horror attack happened at the couple's Cannon Island Way home on Eastlake Island in January.
Police and emergency service personnel called to the scene found the bodies of estate agent Tony Adlington, 48, and the couple's three children, Craig, 9, Kevin, 12, and Katelyn, 11, in his study. Adlington had killed the children with an axe and then set them alight before shooting himself.
Beforehand he had bludgeoned his wife on the head with the blunt end of the axe and walked out of their bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
"I don't remember much about the attack except I know Tony never came to bed. He must have been sitting up waiting for his chance," she said, adding that she had not even seen him coming.
"But when I came out of the coma I drew a picture of a man with an axe so I must have seen him for an instant before he hit me."
Adlington has managed to piece together part of the story after talking to rescue workers who saved her life.
"The paramedics thought I was dead, but I lifted my arm and even managed to give them my name. I also remember taking off on the helicopter to Groote Schuur.
"I must have been conscious because I remember flying straight up and then swooping round over the water and the pilot confirmed that."
Adlington said, while she was in the coma, she remembers hearing the voices of her brothers Nigel and Bruce.
"They would say 'Debbie wake up' - I heard that. I also thought I heard the voice of my eldest calling 'mommy' and I sat up and asked them to bring Kevin to me."
When Adlington was finally told the awful truth about her children, she wanted answers from her husband.
"I wanted to hit him for killing my children, but then they told me he was also dead."
Adlington said while she had to establish a life for herself again, she would never marry. "It would take a lot to ever trust a man again and if anyone verbally abused me like Tony did I would never be able to stay with him."
Adlington said her husband was always very controlling but in the past four to five years of their marriage he had verbally abused her constantly.
"He would also lift his hand as though to hit me but he never did. And he did it in front of the children which used to worry me. I didn't want my boys thinking this was how to treat a woman or my daughter thinking if she got married one day this was something to accept from a husband."
She said her husband was always a closed book and never shared his feelings.
"One thing he often talked about and which made him angry was that he was sent to boarding school at the age of eight while his three sisters stayed at home. He also fought in the war in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, and got angry when he talked about that."
Adlington is likely to stay in hospital for another six weeks.
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