Cape Town - Mystery surrounds the murder of a teenager who was found dead in her friend’s bed.
The 18-year-old girl, who had been sleeping over at her friend’s house, had sustained two bullet wounds to her head.
Police are now investigating a case of murder. No one in the house had apparently heard the gunshots.
Chimicka Cornberg often slept over at the home of her two friends, sisters aged 15 and 17, in Carnation Street, Ocean View.
The sisters’ mother confirmed to the Daily Voice that the 15-year-old’s boyfriend, a man in his twenties, had also slept over that same night.
On Saturday night, the girls had chatted and then Chimicka climbed into the bottom bunk and her 15-year-old friend slept on the top bunk.
Chimicka was sleeping in this bunk bed when she was fatally shot. Picture: Leon Knipe
The boyfriend apparently slept in another room.
On Sunday just after 9am, when the friend had woken up, she saw that Chimicka’s pillow was stained with blood.
On Monday, only the frame of the bed remained after the family removed the bloodied mattress and pillow.
The bedrooms in which the family sleeps are partitioned by a dry wall.
“It was just her and me sleeping in the room,” explains the traumatised 15-year-old girl.
“I only realised that she was dead when I woke up.
“I didn’t hear anything during the night.
“She usually snores in her sleep and when I didn’t hear her, I went to look. I just saw blood everywhere on the pillow. She was shot in the head.”
The girl’s mother, Amanda Atkins, 38, says all the doors were locked and only a bedroom window was left open. This window does not have burglar bars.
The mom shared the other bedroom with her 17-year-old daughter.
“Ons het almal vas geslaap (We were all fast asleep), we didn’t hear a thing,” says Amanda.
“My youngest daughter’s boyfriend also slept over, but in another room.
“I left the house on Sunday around 9am and went to get a drink, and then my 15-year-old daughter got up and discovered the body.”
She says her terrified daughters jumped out of the window to fetch her from the shop.
“God knows how they [the killer] got inside, everything was locked but the window was open,” she says, pointing to the bedroom window.
Chimicka, who dropped out of school in Grade 6, lived with her aunt a few streets away.
Distraught family members and neighbours at the scene. Picture: Leon Knipe
The aunt, Jasmine Abrahams, 43, who rushed to the scene on Sunday, says she last saw the girl on Saturday afternoon when she asked for permission to sleep over at her friend's house.
“She had a bullet hole between her eyes and another hole on the side (of her head),” says a shocked Jasmine.
“As I went to the house, I saw Chimicka’s father (Charlton Leighters) shaking his head as I passed him in the street.”
Jasmine says Chimicka has a seven-year-old sister, who she helped looked after, along with her little cousins.
She has no idea why anyone would harm the girl.
“She didn’t have a boyfriend and she was only for her friends,” Jasmine says.
“She was like the mommy here (taking care of everyone); we don’t know who would do this to her.”
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut confirms a case of murder is under investigation: “No one has been arrested as yet and the motive is to be determined.”