Durban couple who died after neighbour’s flat was fumigated to be remembered at memorial service

The families will host a memorial service for the couple on Thursday.

Nicholas and Matri Molver. Picture supplied.

Published Oct 6, 2022

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Durban - Musgrave couple Nicholas and Matri Molver who tragically died last month after allegedly inhaling a toxic pesticide in their sleep after a neighbouring flat was fumigated will be remembered at a memorial service on Thursday.

Nicholas’s uncle Andre Smith said the memorial service would be a casual event for the families and for those close to the couple to share their grief.

Smith described Nicholas as an old-fashioned gentleman who always put other people first.

“As a young boy when ever I would leave after a visit to his home he would make me promise to call him when I get home and assure him that I was safe.”

The couple would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary this month.

“They were the real-life Rome and Juliet, they truly loved each other,” said their aunt and Smith’s partner Ida Jooste.

Netcare 911 said its paramedics responded to a suspected chemical exposure at the couple’s home and found them unresponsive in their bed.

“It was established that an adjoining vacant flat had been fumigated using a white, powder-like substance,” Netcare 911 Shawn Herbst said at the time.

It is believed that the couple may have inhaled a substance banned for residential fumigation.

Pest Control Federation of South Africa vice-president Moses Chetty told The Mercury that according to information he had received, it was alleged that a chemical which should not be used as a pest control chemical in homes had allegedly been used to fumigate the neighbouring vacant flat.

Inquest dockets are being investigated by the police.

THE MERCURY