Cape Town - Murder-accused Jason Rohde and his slain wife Susan Rohde, shared a torrid relationship, it was revealed in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
A thread of text messages between the two, as well as messages between Rohde and his mistress Jolene Alterskye, and Alterskye and Susan, were presented as evidence in court.
Cellphone record analyst Anna-Marie Van Niekerk read out contents of WhatsApp messages and iMessages.
In her testimony, Van Niekerk highlighted text communications on the day before Susan’s death and on the morning of July 24, 2016, when she was found dead.
Messages from Jason's phone showed how frustrated he was that he could not be with Alterskye.
At 10:02am he wrote: "This weekend made me realise just how much I don't want to be with Sue anymore. All I can think of is you. I want to scream with frustration. I don't want anything more in my life than to be with you."
Close to an hour later he said: “Having you close is driving me crazy. Sue is driving me nuts! She follows me around like a f*** shadow.”
Alterskye replied, saying: “You my penguin forever.”
Jason wrote: "I absolutely hate it, I just want it to end."
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Meanwhile, that same morning Jason and his wife were exchanging slurs via text messages.
At 11:08am on July 23, 2016, Susan wrote to Jason: “Or are you checking how much time you have.”
He replies: “Oh for f*** sakes I’m sitting in a conference with a 150 people watching me!”
About 20 minutes later she called him a "devious f** bastard" in another message.
Susan later ordered her husband to remove “her” number from his cellphone and to reveal blocked contacts.
Jason replied: “Because if I call her it will come up on seri your idiot! Now leave, I have had enough. On my work day you are doing this to me. I want you gone now and I don’t care about the consequences.”
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In the string of messages Susan also preempts divorce.
She wrote: “And I know you are going to divorce me so I am doing what I want now.”
“You are going to die today and so is she,” Susan wrote to her husband.
On the morning of her murder Alterskye and Susan also exchanged words.
At 05:50am Alterskye wrote to Susan: “Go wash your mouth.”
To which Susan replied in with an equally angry message, referencing sex acts between her husband and Alterskye.
Van Niekerk said according to the cellphone records Jason and Alterskye called each other regularly.
In March, 2016, Alterskye called Rohde 544 times; while he in April called her 222 times.
Susan died on July 24, last year.
It was initially believed that she had committed suicide and had hung herself on the bathroom door at the Spier Wine Estate where she and her husband were attending a staff function.
However, police later opened a murder investigation and her husband was charged with the murder.