Pretoria - "Every day I go looking for her. I will never give up hope.”
These were the words of resilient mother Francis Venter, 60, whose daughter Madelein Murray was swept into the Apies River during flash floods late last year.
“I don’t want to believe that she is dead until they find something that proves that she is,” Venter said.
The 40-year-old Murray was crossing a low-water bridge in Capital Park where she lives, when her car was swept into the water.
She was driving with her 21-year-old son, Henco, in the early hours of November 11 when the car was taken during the flash floods.
Henco was found alive about a kilometre from where the car was swept into the water.
The search for Murray continued for eight days before it was discontinued.
Emergency services extended the search into the Bon Accord Dam to find the missing woman.
Although the car she was driving was recovered the following day, Murray has yet to be found.
“I think they need to cut the car open and look for any clues that might help us,” Venter said.
Venter said she lives with Murray’s youngest daughter and Murray’s partner in a house in Capital Park and said the 6-year-old girl still asks questions about her mother. “She always asks why they stopped looking for her; where her mother is; why they kidnapped her. The child is still confused and I think she needs counselling.”
She said that other members of the family held a memorial service for Murray in December, one Venter did not attend.
“How can you have a service for her? How can you do that when there is no body."
“I refused to go because I do not believe she is dead,” Venter said.
She believed the search was stopped too soon and she is carrying on with her own search to find her daughter.
“I go to the river every day and when people call me with some information I follow up those leads. She is my child. I cannot give up hope.”
Murray’s brother Francois Roux, said he missed his sister terribly. “There’s not a day that I don’t think about her and wonder if she’s okay or not,” Roux said.
He said even though the odds were stacked against her, the family still hoped she would be found alive.
“There isn’t any news right now. When we call the police they say they are still investigating.”
Heavy rainfall was experienced at the weekend which caused another bout of flash floods in Pretoria.
According to the Tshwane Emergency Services, several low-water bridges had been flooded by the Jukskei River in Centurion.
Flooding was also experienced in Soshanguve, Mamelodi and Bronkhorstspruit.