Cape Town - A two-year-old Cape Town girl has been brutally beaten to death.
The child, whose ribs had been crushed, lay dead for 20 hours in her mother’s bed before she was taken to hospital.
Now police are hunting for her father, who family claim killed his own daughter.
Little Zoey Petersen celebrated her second birthday on Youth Day.
Two days later, neighbours claim they heard Zoey’s final screams inside her family’s Wendy house in Halman Walk, Hanover Park.
“She sounded like a cat in distress,” the couple’s landlord Zia Roman told the Daily Voice.
Father, Christopher “Krummel” Williams, 32, is allegedly on the run.
His own relatives say they will “kill him” if they get hold of him.
They claim Williams is an evil man who even killed the family dog with his bare hands.
His sister Aqeeda Adams, 37, says Zoey had been her father’s “punching bag” since she was six months old.
Aqeeda says Zoey had been taken out of her parent’s custody THREE times.
But each time she was given back to her mom, Edwina Petersen, 20, who returned to live with Williams.
The Daily Voice has learnt that Edwina is four months pregnant with her and Williams’ second child.
Edwina is yet to break her silence on what happened on the day Zoey was killed.
Police say the child was declared dead on arrival at Hanover Park Day Hospital on June 19.
Sitting inside Williams’ family home on Wednesday, Edwina was comforted by his father, Valentine Williams, 63, and Aqeeda.
With her head bowed, tears streaming down her face, Edwina tried to explain what happened on the fateful day.
She, Williams and their child had been on the road skarreling, and returned home at about 12pm.
“Zoey was lying on the bean bag and she looked so happy,” recalls Edwina.
“She was dressed in a blue pants and a tracksuit top. She didn’t cry and was watching television, he didn’t hit her when I was there.”
Asked what happened next, Edwina starts to cry louder, but won’t reveal the details of her daughter’s death.
She says later that night, after their daughter was killed, Christopher took off her bloody clothes and dressed the body in clean clothes.
He then told Edwina to take the child to hospital the next day.
Aqeeda says on Friday, a nervous-looking Williams came into her house.
“Krummel then walked in and drank water, normally he would ask me first. He looked nervous,” she said.
That was when she learnt the child had been rushed to hospital.
“She had died at 8pm the Thursday night already and that vark (pig) let (Edwina) take a dead child to hospital,” an emotional Aqeeda says.
“I came to the hospital and I saw the child lying next to Edwina, I thought it was abuse again and then I saw the police.
“Die kind was vrek (The child was dead). The doctors said the damage was severe, her ribs were crushed.”
Aqeeda says she raised the alarm on three occasions when she noticed her brother becoming abusive towards Zoey.
“This has been happening since the child was six months old,” the mom of three explains.
“The first time I went to fetch the social workers and they took the child.
“Three months later the police and a social worker named Melissa came here.
“The mother and Christopher said my mother, who has now passed away, was eating up their AllPay money.
“So the child went back to them.”
Aqeeda says they kept noticing bruises on Zoey’s tiny body.
“We told (Edwina) if this doesn’t stop, the child will die,” she says.
Valentine says he hopes his son hands himself over to police.
“I am worried something will happen to him and then police won’t have him for the case,” says the dad.
“He needs to tell his side of the story.”
Manenberg Police Station spokesperson, Lieutenant Ian Bennett, says Williams is still at large.
* Anyone with information on his whereabouts, should contact Sergeant Basson on 073 176 1730 or Sergeant Basso on 078 319 6745 or Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
Daily Voice