South Africans have been paying close attention to the mystery surrounding the death of Susan Rohde, and today was the first appearance in court for husband Jason.

He is facing a charge of murder, Susan found dead in the bathroom of their Spier Hotel room.

For a catch up on our coverage read HERE, but let’s move on to what happened today in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court.

First up let’s see Jason’s arrival at court today, a media scrum taking place the moment he walked into the courtroom:

#JasonRohde arriving at the Stellenbosch Magistrates Court pic.twitter.com/oMelOx0TIN

— Cape Argus (@TheCapeArgus) August 25, 2016

Another angle:

#JasonRohde is nou in die hof. –@MiekeVlok pic.twitter.com/77lkyb5tPD

— Huisgenoot (@huisgenoot) August 25, 2016

His entrance was far from the most dramatic part of the day though, with this bombshell below from IOL:

A marriage counsellor on two occasions warned that the wife of property mogul Jason Rohde was a suicide risk…

The State alleges that she was killed by manual strangulation.

However, Rohde has hired a private investigation team which includes an independent pathologist who concluded that her death was consistent with suicide.

The pathologist’s report was handed to the court and states that an upper bone in Rohde’s wife’s throat would have been fractured if she was strangled. This, however, was not the case.

This is the first time I’ve seen those claims of warnings about suicide coming to light, and that will certainly lend credence to Jason’s story.

That’s not the only evidence being looked at, of course, and much work is still to be done:

A blood splatter report is being compiled as part of the investigation.

The blood splatter report coupled with DNA evidence, as well as evidence gathered from Susan’s cellphone, that of her husband and the Rohde family’s laptop all form part of the investigation, the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court heard.

News24 have some more on what went today:

[Jason’s lawyer] Pete Mihalik read out his client’s affidavit to explain how he had been treated.

He said that after Susan Rohde’s death at Spier Estate in Stellenbosch last month, her husband co-operated with the police at all times and flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town three times.

Despite this availability, seven armed men arrived at his home early on Tuesday morning and traumatised his three minor daughters by “dragging him out bed” to drive him to Cape Town, Mihalik said.

His teenage daughters would have been left alone had it not been for the presence of his elderly parents, who were visiting…

The State requested a seven-day postponement for his bail application, but this was opposed by the defence.

An indignant Mihalik replied: “Now they stand up and say they need time. Don’t they know why he’s here?”

That does seem over the top – they storm in and grab him from his home, then ask for more time when court case begins?

The case has been postponed until tomorrow at 11AM, and Rohde will remain in custody at the Stellenbosch police station overnight.

[sources:iol&news24]