Pretoria - Several “suicide notes” found on the body of a woman who was found lying near-naked under a tree were not written by her but rather by her husband, who stands accused of murdering her and their two young daughters.
This was the testimony given by a police forensic expert who specialises in analysing handwriting.
Lieutenant Carolyn Makgalwa took the stand on Tuesday at the Pretoria High Court trial of Evans Mpanyane, 32.
He is facing three counts of murder relating to the deaths of his wife, Cornelia, and their daughters, Joy, six, and Priscilla, seven.
The three were strangled around lunch time on December 16, 2011.
Mpanyane pleaded not guilty to the murders, but chose to remain quiet about his defence.
The body of Cornelia was found under a jacaranda tree in Kameelfontein, north of Pretoria.
The bodies of the children were discovered on the back seat of their father’s car.
Several “suicide” notes were found on the woman, with one of them pinned to her bra strap, on her shoulder.
Makgalwa said she received two exercise books containing Cornelia’s handwriting as well as several documents containing the handwriting of the accused.
She compared these with the “suicide letters”. The expert, in a chart handed to the court, pointed out several discrepancies in the lettering purported to be that of the deceased in the letters.
Makgalwa said a person trying to forge someone else’s handwriting would always somehow revert back to his own unique handwriting.
In this case there was also a lack of flow in the writing of the letters and there was a lot of touching up.
The writing style of the letters did not compare with that of the deceased, but rather with that of the accused, Makgalwa said.
Her conclusion was that the letters were written by Mpanyane himself.
The defence, however, is to consult a handwriting expert in an effort to refute this evidence.
Mpanyane’s lawyer is to cross-examine the police expert on Wednesday.
The letters were written in Pedi and much of them was taken up by the author asking for God’s forgiveness.
Constable Raditshego Mashilo testified that he had gone to the scene shortly after the body was discovered by two passers-by and saw the dead woman clad in only her bra and panties.
The woman’s body was dusty and dirty and there were signs of a struggle.
According to him, the note pinned to her bra was clean.
He left the scene to fetch the couple who had discovered the body, but while he was driving he saw a blue Golf and suspected it was that of the accused.
A man got out of the car and walked towards him. When he asked the man who he was, the man identified himself as Evans Mpanyane and told him he was looking for someone. Mashilo said he became suspicious when he saw the man had blood on his shirt and his trousers were dusty.
He called for back-up and when his colleagues arrived, they went to inspect the car.
“I saw two children in the back, who appeared to be sleeping. The smaller one was resting her head on the shoulder of the older one. They did not open their eyes and they were not breathing. I noticed injuries to their necks and it seemed as if they were caused by a rope.”
Pretoria News