Cape Town - One of the women who witnessed the hijacking and murder of Scarborough surfer David Wolfromm continues to have nightmares a month later.
Wolfromm was attacked in the late afternoon of Wednesday, May 8 as he came out of the sea after a surf at Witsand beach near Kommetjie.
The father was returning to his car, a silver Nissan X-Trail, when he was attacked by two men. He was shot, and then loaded in the boot of his car. The attackers allegedly covered his bleeding body with a towel, and then drove off in the stolen vehicle.
Jocelyn Claasen, 23, is still suffering in the wake of the traumatic events she witnessed.
Claasen said she has recurring nightmares about what happened after she and a friend got into the 4x4 with the men who they were familiar with.
It was only once they were inside the vehicle that they saw the back seats were folded down, and there was a person in the boot covered up with a towel, bleeding.
Terrified, they tried to get out, but the men driving would not answer their questions or stop the car.
“They didn’t want to let me out,” she said.
In the chaos, the vehicle collided with another driver, who then gave chase. Claasen then saw one of the men take out a gun and shoot at the chasing driver, who then drove away.
As soon as their vehicle came to a stop, Claasen and the other woman jumped out and fled down a dirt road towards a reservoir, where they hid in the bushes. They saw the men set the car on fire, with the bloodied victim still inside.
“It was the first time I have seen anything like that before,” she said. “I wet myself in fright.”
She made her way back to her Ocean View home. She couldn’t sleep that night.
Claasen has a 5-year-old son, and is five months pregnant. She survives by walking from her home to Fish Hoek, collecting food to feed herself and her child. She has not received any counselling since witnessing the murder and arson, and says she doesn’t have any support from her family. She has flashbacks of the incident, and it still dwells on her mind.
Claasen said she has since given a statement to police, and wants to be a State witness when evidence is heard in the court case.
At the time that they allegedly hijacked and murdered Wolfromm, the accused were out on bail from a previous hijacking they allegedly committed in Simon’s Town.
The alleged killers appeared in Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday for two separate hijackings. Wilson “Stoffel” Wilschut, 30, and Mark Williams, 33, appeared on charges of aggravated robbery related to a hijacking incident in Simon’s Town, and second, for the hijacking and the murder of Wolfromm.
Both of these cases were postponed for further investigation.
Ocean View police spokesperson Leon Fortuin said the men then picked up two women from Ocean View and drove along Slangkop Road, as they apparently wanted to show off their “new” car.
Wilschut and Williams will appear again to face the murder charges in Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court on August 22.