Cape Town - The family of murdered Manenberg girl, Chanelle McCrawl, say they are shocked after her uncle and a neighbour was arrested for allegedly raping and killing her.
The suspects will appear in the Athlone Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday for the murder of the 10-year-old, who was found dead at the Vygieskraal River on Friday.
Her grandmother, Eileen McCrawl, who found Chanelle’s body, says she is still in shock after seeing the child’s blood in the home of her son-in-law.
“We got such a shock, we never thought he’d ever do something like this,” says the distraught granny.
Eileen says her daughter and grandchildren have since moved out of the area following threats from the community.
Chanelle, a Grade 4 learner at Edendale Primary School, never made it to class on Thursday.
On Monday, police revealed that two men were arrested after a special sniffer dog was flown in from Pretoria to trace Chanelle’s blood from a wheelie bin found in Audrey Court where she lived.
Chanelle lived with her mother and grandmother in a top-storey flat while her uncle, aunt and cousins lived in a Wendy house at the back of a ground floor flat at Audrey Court.
A police source explains: “She left her house at 7:30am and went to her aunty’s house downstairs to get her two nieces to go to the place where they get porridge in the morning.
“But on Thursday the aunty had a hospital appointment and took the two children with her. So when Chanelle got there, the uncle got her.”
The girl’s mom Charmaine was at the mortuary when the sperm-and-blood dog was brought in, but Eileen says she got a fright when she saw what the dog had found.
“Ek was hier toe hulle die hond in bring. (I was here when they brought in the dog.) They found blood on the floor, the curtain and on the cupboard. There was also a blue towel and a sweater with blood on it,” she says.
“The police took everything away but there was also blood on the couch.”
Meanwhile, Charmaine told the Cape Argus that she was finding it difficult to come to terms with losing her only daughter.
Speaking to the paper on Friday, she said: “I went to see her body today and that was the hard part. The way she looked she is not happy. Her mouth was still open and she just didn’t look happy. Her neck was broken and they said she was raped.”
Meanwhile, children from Edendale Primary School gathered in the school foyer yesterday to create a memorial wall for Chanelle.
Manenberg residents will also embark on a mass peace march tonight.
Community worker Roegshanda Pascoe says they will gather at Manenberg Circle at 6.45pm and will light candles for Chanelle.