By Mluleki Mtungwa
When teacher Anita Spates, 25, of East London in the Eastern Cape, boarded a Chicago-bound flight to take up permanent residence with her American husband in March, it was the first step towards her tragic death, allegedly at the hands of the man she loved.
Three weeks after she arrived in Chicago with their two-year-old son, Waiven, her husband, William Spates, 41, is alleged to have physically abused them. At the time Spates was seeing two other women in the Illinois city, Anita's sister, Suzan Earb, has claimed.
Thousands of kilometres from home and lonely, they moved out of Spates' apartment and sought refuge in a shelter in Chicago.
The alleged maltreatment of Anita by her husband touched the heart of his own sister, who asked her to move into her apartment.
The move would later prove to be fatal - on April 23 an enraged Spates allegedly killed her in a hail of 12 bullets in the bathroom of the apartment where she had sought refuge.
"Immediately after Anita moved in with her sister-in-law, Spates began to harass her on a daily basis until the shooting occurred," said Earb.
"We received the news of her death with shock because no one in the family expected Anita to die at such a young age."
Tears trickled down Earb's face as she told the chilling tale of her sister's death so soon after her arrival in Chicago to start a new life.
The trauma for Anita's family did not end with her horrifying death. They are now battling to get custody of Waiven, who is in foster care in Chicago, and are embroiled in a bitter custody fight with Spates.
Earb said their mother had been unable to cope with the stress and she (Suzan) was the one left to deal with her sister's death, including keeping tabs on the murder trial in the United States which they cannot attend because of financial constraints.
American social workers have recommended that Waiven be released to the Earbs in South Africa, but Anita's husband successfully challenged the decision in an American court, which granted him parental rights over the child.
Before she was murdered, Anita had alerted the South African Consulate-General in Chicago about the way she was being treated. Consulate official Cilda Pretorius said Anita contacted them a week before she was killed.
"She told our office her husband had been abusing her since she arrived in Chicago," Pretorius said.
A spokesman for the prosecuting attorney in Chicago confirmed that Anita was gunned down on April 23 and that Spates appeared in court on murder charges for the first time on April 24.
He pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could receive the death sentence under Illinois law.
Spates, who is in custody, will appear in court for the fourth time on July 10.
The child will continue living in foster care in Chicago, pending the custody case, which will be heard in August.
"We believe our chances of getting the child back to South Africa are very slim because the law is not on our side and we are even struggling to get a legal representative in Chicago," Suzan Earb said.
The South African Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the problem and has instructed its consulate in Chicago to work closely with the American court.
"She was the person who we were all looking up to in the family and she was instrumental in keeping the family together all the time," said Earb.
Before she left South Africa Anita was a science teacher at East London Science College.