Cape Town - Jesse Hess would have celebrated her 19th birthday on Friday. She would have been up at 5am and wanted a vanilla birthday cake.
Instead, the mood in the Hess family household was sombre.
It’s been nearly two months and no one has been arrested for the double murder in which Hess and her 85-year-old grandfather were killed inside their Parow home on August 30.
Hess was found dead on her bed, while grandfather, Chris, was found tied up and gagged in the toilet.
Her aunt, Sandy Hess, told the Weekend Argus the young woman had already planned her birthday. She always liked to plan ahead and had wanted to have a get together with some of her girlfriends at her uncle’s home in Sea Point.
Sandy Hess said she had not allowed herself to grieve properly.
“For me, she is on a weekend away. Until whoever did this to her is caught I can’t grieve. I don’t want this to become a cold case. We don’t know how to cope, we are on autopilot.”
The one-bedroom flat in Parow where Hess, her grandfather, brothers, aunt, and cousin lived, is no longer occupied by the family.
They said they had not received any form of counselling or support from the government or NGOs and had been left reeling.
Even after a crowdfunding and BackaBuddy initiative was started to hire a private investigator, they had not made headway in their case. According to the BackaBuddy website, close to R67000 has been raised so far.
“I have no idea what is happening with the investigator. We never saw or heard from him again,” said Sandy Hess.
Kate Steyn, who started the BackaBuddy campaign, confirmed a private investigator had been appointed.
“He has been working very closely with the investigating officer,” she said.
While the police have been very good at keeping the family abreast of what’s happening, Sandy Hess said she was told that there was a delay with the forensics.
Spokesperson for Western Cape Forensic Pathology Services Deanna Bessick said the case was submitted on August 31 and a post-mortem was done on September 3.
“There is currently no backlog at the Tygerberg Forensic Department. The post-mortem report will be issued on Monday for SAPS collection,” said Bessick.
Just hours before her murder Hess won R5000 during a Heart FM radio competition. Head of programming, Denver Apollus, said the radio station had doubled her winnings.
The Hess family will commemorate her birthday on Sunday at her grave in Maitland.
“We will have some family and friends gather to lay some flowers on her grave.”
This week global movements against gender-based violence met to discuss the ongoing problem.
“All of the statistics on violence against women and girls are unacceptable, in all parts go the world. We’ve known the prevalence of violence against women and girls is 35% globally and as high as 80% some in very fragile settings, but we also know that violence is preventable and these rates can change if we have the right partnerships and real resources dedicated to reverse this pandemic,” said Gary Barker, chief executive Promundo and Sexual Violence Research Initiative forum delegate.
New technology was discussed at the forum in the aiding against violence including DNA testing in cases of rape.
“But none of this new technology works if we don’t have staff to respond, if women and children don’t have protective services and if our workplaces, schools and other places continue to turn a blind eye to violence,” said Barker.