* This story had been edited to remove the nine-year-old girl's name.
Cape Town - The teenager behind bars in connection with the murder of her mother Rosemary Theron was under a “love spell” cast by her boyfriend and co-accused Kyle Maspero, and the pair were embroiled in constant conflict with Theron who was vehemently opposed to her daughter’s relationship with the allegedly tik-addicted youth.
Theron’s decomposed body was dug up from a shallow grave among bushes, off a footpath close to a bridge along Baden Powell Drive in Strandfontein on September 26. This week, friends and acquaintances trying to get to grips with the murder also revealed that Theron’s daughter, Phoenix Racing Cloud Theron, married 18-year-old Maspero while the search for her mother was still continuing.
Following a brief appearance in the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Phoenix and Maspero are expected to apply for bail on Thursday. They have yet to plead to the murder charge, and are being held in Pollsmoor Prison.
A third suspect, Godfrey Scheepers, 20, is out on bail. His bail was extended following a confession made at Fish Hoek police station that he had information about Theron’s disappearance.
He had allegedly helped Maspero move the body from near Theron’s Clovelly house to Strandfontein.
Close family friend Richard Kraak, who knew 39-year-old Theron for 20 years, told of how Maspero began taking more and more control over the family, after he and Phoenix moved to Cape Town from Knysna in February.
On Saturday Weekend Argus reported that Maspero had been in and out of foster homes since his mother died when he was five, had been expelled from two schools for drug use and theft, and had abandoned his matric studies earlier this year to move to Cape Town with Phoenix.
Kraak said the teens apparently got married at a magistrate’s court while Theron was missing. They were taking care of Theron’s youngest daughter, who is nine.
According to Kraak, tik lay at the root of the problems in the family.
Maspero followed Phoenix here when she left Knysna earlier this year after living there with her father for most of her high school years. He said she had wanted to spend more time with her mother.
Kraak was adamant that Maspero was a tik user, and had been taking drugs from a young age.
“He was a tik addict and had been to rehab a few times. His (foster father) wanted him to take a blood test first otherwise he wouldn’t be allowed to come and stay here with Phoenix. It’s rumoured his mother had committed suicide… he’s been damaged even before this, and tik causes massive damage to the brain, the part that affects your emotions… it can make you become emotionless,” he said.
Neighbour Tracy Viljoen described Theron as “always friendly”, but recalled how Maspero used to “scream at our builders”, demanding they clear the rubble, when they were doing renovations.
Lauren Amy Hofmeyr, who worked with Theron at performance art company Sonic Weaver Productions, agreed that Phoenix was “under a love spell”.
“Kyle always went with her everywhere, and would even answer her questions for her,” she said.
During the court appearance on Monday, the magistrate heard how Theron was strangled from behind in her Clovelly home. It was alleged in court proceedings that, on the night of the killing, Phoenix smoked drugs with Maspero as the two conspired to kill an unsuspecting Theron.
The court heard that, after apologising to her mother, Phoenix allegedly hugged Theron and said “sorry for fighting”, as Maspero approached from behind and allegedly strangled the mother with a rope.
The pair then allegedly wrapped the dead woman’s body in a pink blanket and buried her in a field close to her Clovelly home.
Kraak said he quickly became suspicious of the teenagers’ version of events after Theron’s disappearance, and that the details “kept changing”.
After they got married, they decided to move to Gordon’s Bay around the end of July, even though there was still no sign of Theron.
Theron's nine-year-old daughter was removed from the local school, and placed in Mondeor Eco School in Somerset West. - Sunday Argus