Cape Town - A 72-year-old man who survived being shot received the devastating news that his wife was killed during an attack in their Marina da Gama home in the early hours of yesterday.
William Carter is recovering in hospital after he was shot in the stomach shortly after 3.30am. He was found lying outside the couples’ home.
His wife, Frances “Fran” Carter, 66, was found stabbed to death in the kitchen.
Speaking to Weekend Argus from his hospital bed, the father of two said he had been informed in hospital that his wife of 26 years had been killed.
He said they were attacked by two men in their home in the quiet, waterside suburb near Muizenberg.
“I’m in quite a bit of pain from the bullet in my stomach, from what I understand it went right through me,” he said.
“I did not know about my wife, and I was only told when I was in hospital what happened to her. It was quite a shock.
“I don’t remember much. It is all a blur. I do remember being shot; there was a scuffle for the gun. There were two people in the house, but non-descriptive.”
Detectives and crime scene analysts spent hours combing the scene at the couple’s home while a diver scoured the lake behind the house, as the team tried to collect evidence to piece together details of the incident.
ER24, which responded to the scene shortly after 4am, said Frances was found unresponsive with knife wounds to the head and back while William had a gunshot wound.
“She was declared dead on arrival, and he was in critical condition and was treated with advanced life support interventions by Metro EMS before being transported to a private hospital for further care,” said ER24 spokesperson Ross Campbell.
Police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut said investigators had gathered evidence to determine what led to the murder and attempted murder.
He said that a diver was called out to help gather evidence at the scene. They were looking for the gun used to shoot Carter, although it was still unclear who the gun belonged to.
“It is too soon to speculate on the merits of the case at this stage,” Traut added.
While police are keeping mum on the details surrounding their investigation, neighbours in the quiet community have expressed shock at the gruesome attacks.
“I heard two shots go off at around 2.30am, and my dogs were barking, but I did not go out to investigate and woke up to see all these police vehicles,” said a neighbour, who did not want to be named.
“We don’t see this sort of thing in our community, so it is understandable that there are so many questions around what happened. Was it a domestic dispute, were there intruders? We need answers. There is 24-hour security here and they are very good at spotting vehicles that are not familiar to them or don’t belong.
“The last time we had a murder here was nearly 20 years ago when a man hacked his three children to death with an axe.”
In January 2002, Tony Adlington, 42, bludgeoned his three children to death, attacked his wife with a blunt end of the same axe before killing himself at their Marina da Gama home.
Deputy chairperson of the Uitsig Peninsula Neighbourhood Watch Karen Bruckner said it was understandable that residents were concerned by the incident.
“This is a quiet area. The kind of crime we have is mostly petty incidents and drug-related crimes from neighbouring areas where if people leave things outside then that will be an opportunity for people to come into people’s yards to steal things,” she said.
“I have been here for 15 years ,and this is not something we see. And since the neighbourhood watch was established five years ago, there has been increased vigilance.
“Residents are quite concerned. Understandable, as it is quite a shock for everyone, but we have been urging residents to give police the space to do their work.”