Court hears grisly details of elderly woman's murder

IN COURT: Sheree Prince, 21, admitted to grisly attack on 74-year-old victim

IN COURT: Sheree Prince, 21, admitted to grisly attack on 74-year-old victim

Published Feb 28, 2018

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Cape Town - Two years after the mutilated body of a pensioner was found in her home, a young woman on Tuesday confessed that she was behind the grisly murder.

Sheree Prince, 21, admitted in court papers that she had cut off the head and limbs of a 74-year-old woman, after the old lady nursed her broken foot and fed her.

Prince is accused of breaking into the home of Sandra Malcolm in Capri Mews, Lakeside, in April 2015 and killing her.

She is currently on trial at the Western Cape High Court and, on Monday, admitted that she killed Sandra.

She also faces one charge of housebreaking with the intent to steal and theft, and a charge of housebreaking with the intent to commit an offence unknown. She pleaded not guilty to both housebreaking charges.

The first charge relates to a break-in at a house in Portlands, Mitchells Plain, on 14 April 2015, in which Prince stole various items, including a cellphone, jewellery and a computer, to the value of

R18 000.

In a plea explanation, Prince says she left her home in Citrusdal in April 2015 due to the “poor

relationship” she had with her mother.

She arrived in Portlands, where she saw a house with a “broken” window and climbed through it.

She admits to robbing the house and then going to Muizenberg by taxi.

There, a man told her she could find accommodation with a woman called Sanna.

During her stay, Prince says she was offered a job as a cleaner at an antique shop and earned between R150 and R200 a day.

On the second night, they drank and someone came to lie next to her on her bed and she decided to leave.

On her way out, she accidentally kicked over a pot of stew, and burnt her foot.

She left with a handbag she had stolen in Portlands.

She says on 18 April, she arrived at the gates of Capri Mews in Lakeside and noticed a window open at a flat and climbed through it.

Inside, Sandra woke up and threatened to call the cops.

“I told her that I climbed through the window, that I was looking for help and showed her my burnt foot,” the plea statement reads.

“We then went into the kitchen where she gave me Savlon mixed with water to wash my foot. She then made me toast and tea.

“The woman said she was going to phone for an ambulance. I said no and grabbed the knife. I told her I would stab her if she called the police. She tried to take the knife from me.

“I stabbed her in her chest once and she fell to the ground. I wanted to leave, but saw her trying to get up.

“I then killed her by decapitating her with the big knife.

“I tried to cut her body in order to take it apart. I sent a message to my father using the woman’s phone, saying: ‘Ek’s in groot k**, help’.

“I then cut off both of her arms and tried to cut off her legs, but failed to remove them completely and then I used an axe to chop it off.”

She placed Sandra’s body in a bin and her limbs in a plastic container.

She left the stolen bag, containing cards and a phone, at the house, and went back to the bush to collect her other bags.

A few days later, her aunt and uncle in Muizenberg helped her to return home to Citrusdal, where she hid the stolen goods in her father’s house.

She says cops came to arrest her there a few days later.

Eric Ntabazalila, of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), says Prince was linked to the crimes via fingerprints, cellphone records and the stolen items which were recovered after her arrest.

Daily Voice

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