Suicide turns to double murder instead
A depressed Pretoria man wanted to commit suicide but killed both his parents instead.
|||Durban - A depressed man wanted to commit suicide but, when he walked past his father who was working on his computer in his study, he thought to himself “why should I commit suicide if I can shoot my father?”.
He then fired a shot into the man’s head.
Herman Pienaar’s mother met the same fate as she ran to see what was happening.
“I also shot her once in the head. I did not want her to live with the pain that one of her sons had committed suicide and killed her husband.”
His younger brother had committed suicide by hanging himself a few years before this incident, Pienaar told the high court in Pretoria this week.
He pleaded guilty to murdering his father, Herman sr, a mechanical engineer and his mother, Christina.
The couple were murdered in their Valhalla, Pretoria, home on February 28 last year.
The youthful-looking 38-year-old, was convicted on Tuesday after he explained in detail how he shot his parents.
Pienaar made it clear that although he was heavily under the influence of alcohol and drugs, he knew exactly what he was doing.
He said he was remorseful immediately after shooting them but, while he committed the double murder, he did not think about the consequences of his actions.
A psychiatrist who evaluated Pienaar, reported that he was addicted to alcohol, dagga, heroin, sedatives and stimulants.
Pienaar said he was heavily under the influence of sleep medication, drugs and he had consumed several bottles of vodka and vodka coolers.
Before the incident he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. When his brother committed suicide on December 18, 2011, Pienaar discovered him and tried in vain to save his life.
“I was devastated by his death,” he said.
Two days before killing his parents he took his father’s pistol from the safe and went target shooting to “relax a bit”.
When he returned, he placed the firearm in his cupboard, under his clothes.
“On the day of the incident I felt extremely depressed. I bought three bottles of 750ml vodka and finished all. I also took 20 sleeping pills, because I could not sleep.”
Pienaar said he was drinking vodka coolers by the time his parents got home.
His father swore at him because he was drunk and told him he had to leave the house by the next day, because he did not want to work.
Pienaar was standing on the patio with his mother, when his father threw one of the coolers on the floor in front of him.
“I went to my bedroom and fetched the pistol to commit suicide…
“As I walked out I saw my dad in the study. I fired one shot at his head… My mother ran past me into the study and I also shot her once in the head. I panicked.”
Pienaar said he phoned a friend to tell him he was going to commit suicide, but the friend said they should rather stage a robbery so that the police would not suspect him.
They stole several items and then went on a drug binge, consuming, among others, “disco biscuits”, Pienaar said.
He was later arrested in Boksburg after the police traced him via his cellphone. Sentencing proceedings will be on January 25.
Daily News
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