IT started off like any other day for the Hume family of Ballito - but nothing has been the same since.
This is what Mark Hume, the husband of murdered estate agent Lynne Hume, told the Bloemfontein High Court on Friday when he recalled that dreadful day in October, 2007, when his wife disappeared.
The couple had a rental business under the Pam Golding umbrella in Ballito and his wife, 47, had struck a deal with IT consultant Muziwendoda Kunene, who wanted to rent a furnished flat at Simbithi at the upmarket eco-golf estate at Salt Rock. Kunene, it is alleged, had given her a cheque for R637 350 for three years' rent.
It was good rental for a long time and his wife was very excited about it, said Hume.
'Problem'
But there was a "problem" with the cheque - it would prove to be a dud - and Hume told her husband and staff she was going to see Kunene who had already moved into Simbithi. She swiped her access card to Simbithi at 12.21pm on October 23, 2007.
The full extent of the horror that befell her after that has yet to be revealed in court.
The prosecution says Kunene's son, Msebenziwenkosi, later saw a woman coming down the stairs at the flat with a blanket or a duvet over her head and her hands tied. She was put in a BMW and the car and Hume's Volvo were then driven out of Simbithi.
Hume's life ended in a little rural track off the main Kestell road in the Free State when she was transferred to the Volvo, shot and the car set alight. Her body was so badly burned it took months before it could be positively identified.
In the dock are Kunene, 45, of San Marina, Seaward Estate, Ballito, his co-accused Mvikeleni Khoza, 26, and Mphakamiseni Khumalo, 21, both of Msinga, near Dundee, who are alleged to be Kunene's bodyguards, but who deny kidnapping and murdering Hume.
They have pleaded not guilty to robbery with aggravating circumstances to obtain her car, three cheques, a bank card and R1 000. They also face charges of fraud involving cheques totalling R20 000. Kunene denies an additional fraud charge involving the dud cheque.
Several burnt items - a blackened bracelet, necklace and glasses - belonging to the victim are on the exhibit table in the court, bearing silent witness every day.
Hume's husband and daughter, Kirsty, stopped at the murder scene on their way to the court to place roses. Their other daughter, Samantha, flew in from Cape Town. Hume said no one really wanted to go to the trial, but they needed to get answers, and, hopefully, justice.
His mother-in-law, Bunty Williams, said she needed to find out the facts to get rid of thoughts haunting her.
Worried
The family has turned out in force, including Bunty's husband, Arthur, and the victim's lookalike sister, Jenni Williams and mother-in-law, Ena Hume.
The court heard how the family, friends and colleagues had become worried when Hume did not return to work after going to Simbithi. They could also not contact her on her cellphone.
Then, Lauren McDonald, a rental agent in Hume's office, received a text message from Hume's cellphone, saying she had to rush to Durban.
At about 3.30am the next day, she received another, asking her to write out a receipt for the lease agreement (R637 350) so Kunene could collect it the next day. It was strange to get a call at that time of the morning, and odd that Hume would ask her to issue a receipt.
Mr Hume also got a strange SMS claiming he was cheating on his wife, he told the court.
"My reaction was one of confusion and disbelief."
It made no sense: he was not cheating, he said. He also got an SMS from her phone after her death - while police were in his home asking him if he owned a Volvo which had been found burnt-out in the Free State with a body inside. They traced him through the chassis number.
Nothing had been the same since the murder, Hume said. He had sold the couple's business. It had taken weeks to identify the body as being that of a woman and another six weeks to identify it - using DNA tests - as that of his wife.
The family had been shocked when Kunene's girlfriend, Noluthando Naza, 29, testified that the day before the murder, Kunene asked her if he could use her bank account to deposit a cheque.
Then - after the murder - he gave her a R10 000 cheque belonging to Hume to deposit, plus another for R5 000 to be placed in another account, she testified.
He told her the owner of the cheques had been killed ... and that the murderers could also come and kill her, she alleged.
There was a bizarre twist mid-week when Kunene's lawyer, Jan Nkhahle, claimed Kunene had known the victim since the 1980s and that she had been an undercover agent gathering intelligence for him when he worked in National Intelligence.
Another suggestion was that she was an underground member of the End Conscription Campaign. "Does that even exist?" Judge Mojalefa Rampai wondered.
Dud
Kunene contends that someone was impersonating him, that he never rented the flat at Simbithi and never wrote the dud cheque, saying the police had seized some of his possessions, including his cheque book.
Kunene also claims that there is a conspiracy against him by the police and his son.
Khumalo's lawyer said his client would claim that Kunene jnr phoned him to ask him to support his claim that Kunene snr had killed Hume.
Kunene is also facing a charge of attempting to murder his son in another court.
Kunene jnr, who is in the witness protection programme, is expected to give evidence tomorrow.
The Hume family believe the mystery of their beloved Lynne's last tragic hours may finally be revealed.