A hitchhiking woman, holding a six-month-old baby, lured a Good Samaritan to a back road where the woman’s partner viciously attacked the motorist.
Marietjie van Staden was robbed and left for dead after the brutal beating on Tuesday night.
The hitchhiker with the baby then alerted the woman’s family by SMS using Van Staden’s cellphone.
Van Staden was first approached by a thin woman in ragged clothes while filling up at the Caltex petrol station near the R500 in Carletonville.
The woman, who was clutching her young child, ran to Van Staden’s car as she was driving out of the petrol station.
The woman claimed she was starving and needed a lift to her home on a smallholding a few kilometres away.
Seeing the baby, Van Staden agreed to take the woman down the road.
But after the woman got into the back seat, a man approached and sat in the passenger seat.
Van Staden was told that he was the woman’s husband and that he could give directions.
Although worried, Van Staden decided to take the couple and their child to their destination.
She was then told to take a back road leading to the nearby smallholding “on the other side of a large piece of veld”.
The couple said they would be happy to walk the rest of the way through the veld and thanked her before asking for money for food.
After Van Staden gave the woman R50, she got out of the car with her baby and said goodbye.
But the woman’s husband had already taken the thick metal steering-wheel lock and beat her over the head with it numerous times. Van Staden was knocked unconscious, and the man helped himself to items in the car.
Maggie, Van Staden’s partner, had been visiting a friend in Randfontein when she got the first BBM (Blackberry message) at about 9pm, sent from Van Staden’s phone.
“Marietjie has been in an accident near Silveroaks on the R500,” it read.
The next message said Van Staden might not survive.
After contacting a police officer, Maggie and a friend rushed to Carletonville, more than 70km away.
“We must have gone up and down the R500 for about 400km, but we couldn’t find her car,” said Maggie, who said she kept phoning Van Staden’s cellphone.
She believes the hitch-hiker started to feel guilty and thought that by mentioning the R500 they’d be able to spot her car just off the main road.
But Van Staden’s car’s lights had been turned off, making it almost impossible to see so late at night.
Three hours after the first BBM, there was a second one. The hitchhiker admitted what happened, saying her husband was crazy and that she wanted to get help for Marietjie.
She then gave Van Staden’s exact location.
Maggie said it appeared that the woman had told her husband she was going to buy food, and instead returned to Van Staden’s car.
The woman locked the car, threw the keys through a small crack in the window and contacted Maggie on Van Staden’s phone. She then fled.
“This woman was at least humane in one way. She wanted to help,” said Maggie. The car was found shortly afterwards with an unconscious Van Staden lying across the front seats.
The badly beaten woman was still breathing, but it took several minutes to rouse her.
“When she first woke up, she thought we were her attackers. It took us a while to calm her down and get her to open the door,” said Maggie.
Van Staden was released from hospital on Wednesday evening. She suffered contusions to her face, but nothing was fractured during the attack.
She returned to hospital on Thursday to determine the extent of her concussion.
“As a woman, of course you care about children. How could she ignore this person who was starving and carrying her kid?” asked Maggie.
A case has been opened at the Carletonville police station. No arrests had been made. - The Star