Cape Town – The youngest member of the Van Breda family was in a "severe altercation" with her attacker and suffered similar "chop wounds" to her mother, father and brother.
Marli van Breda was 16 years old when she was severely injured, while her parents, Martin and Teresa, and brother, Rudi, were murdered in the brutal axe attack in their Stellenbosch home in the early hours of the morning of January 27, 2015.
Forensic pathologist Dr Daphne Anthony told the Western Cape High Court on Thursday that she believed, after studying photographs, that Marli was the fourth victim to be attacked.
Like her other family members, she also had "evidence of chop wounds" and severe head injuries.
"The issue about survival after infliction of trauma depends on various amount of factors – it depends on age, the younger survive longer, it also depends on the amount of blood loss and also if you have compensatory mechanisms. You can have severe blood loss, but the body can still be able to compensate for that."
Henri van Breda, 22, stands accused of bludgeoning to death his father, mother and brother, as well as the attempted murder of his sister Marli. Anthony said she did not know if Marli sustained skull fractures or injury to the brain itself, but this would have also played a role in her survival.
Anthony performed the post mortems on Martin, Teresa and Rudi van Breda and testified that all three died from "head injuries and the consequences thereof".
She said she believed Rudi van Breda, who was 22 years old at the time, was attacked first and "suffered the most violent attack". She believes he was lying on his bed on the right side of his face.
He had more injuries on his left, and "with the infliction of trauma to his head, he was aware of what was coming down, so raised his hand in an attempt to ward off the attack".
He sustained a defensive wound on the little finger of his left hand and the nail was also loose. In the case of the father, Anthony believed he was attacked next, but was not aware of his attacker and was hit from behind.
Most of his injuries were on the back of his head and neck, and he had no defensive wounds. In the case of the mother, Anthony postulated that she was facing the assailant and instinctively raised her right hand which caused the defensive wound on her hand.
"She most likely fell forward on her face" which explained abrasions on the bridge of her nose and contusions on her left side. Anthony believes Marli was the fourth victim to be attacked.
She sustained a brain injury and has since recovered physically, although she has retrograde amnesia and cannot recall the events of that night. Henri faces three charges of murder, one of attempted murder and one of defeating the ends of justice.
With his head bowed throughout Thursday's court proceedings, he sat as far back as possible to avoid seeing photographs of his dead family members.