When I woke up my wife and child were dead: ex-cop

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Published Sep 29, 2017

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Pretoria - Former Presidential Protection Service officer, Warrant Officer Benedict Peloeole, who allegedly murdered his wife and daughter two years ago claimed he was drugged and passed out.

Peloeole told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that when he woke up, his wife and daughter were dead. He pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.

Peloeole, who was initially deployed to the Union Buildings, is accused of murdering his wife Jane, 42, and daughter Tsholofelo, 23, at their house in Westville, west of Pretoria, on the night of September 12, 2015.

But Peloeole claimed it was a set-up. He testified that he had a beer at a tavern about an hour before he had returned home. When he got home his “beloved” daughter, to whom he referred to as “his queen”, and his wife were watching television.

He said he was in the company of two family members and he kissed his wife, before he went to the kitchen to make food. He said he was feeling fine at the time, but while he was chopping livers in the kitchen, he became dizzy and disorientated.

He said it got so bad that he had to hold on to the kitchen cupboards. His wife came into the kitchen and “saw on his face” he was not well.

According to Peloeole, she told him to go and lie down and said she would continue making the food.

He testified that he walked towards the bedroom, holding on to the wall, but on the way there he passed out. He said he had no idea how long he was unconscious, but he woke up when the two family members each held him by an arm. They told him that he had killed his wife and daughter. “I did not do it,” he told Judge Eben Jordaan.

Pictures handed to court of the murder scene depicted his daughter slumped on the sofa in front of the television. She had suffered two bullet wounds. His wife had suffered four bullet wounds.

The State pointed out that the house was small and questioned how it was possible that Peloeole did not wake up from the loud shots, but came by when he was taken by the arms by two men in the house.

Pretoria News

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