Monday’s session in court was centred around the hair found in Marli van Breda’s hand, although I’m surprised more people weren’t talking about Henri’s choice of tie (HERE).

Yesterday saw two crucial witnesses take the stand; emergency call centre operator Janine Philander, who received Henri’s call at 7:12AM the morning of the murders, and former neighbour Stephanie Op’t Hof.

We’ll start with Philander, who initially thought the call was a prank. News24 below:

“He phoned in for an ambulance and he was hesitant. I heard what sounded to me like a giggle,” she testified.

Van Breda was “quite calm and co-operative” during their interaction.

You can listen to part of the emergency call on eNCA, with the ‘giggle’ coming just after the 30-second mark. Back to Philander’s court appearance:

Philander said in her experience, callers reporting a home invasion or assault were frantic, shouted, screamed, were confused, or unable to recall contact numbers. They were persistent and immediately wanted an ambulance.

“I waited for that to come through, but it didn’t,” Philander [below] explained…

“He was helpful in giving alternative street names. He didn’t get angry, wasn’t pressuring or getting agitated with me. He was just cool and calm. That was the weirdest [reaction] ever for me.”

…“That is something out of the norm for me. People would usually say, ‘I am not going to where you are telling me to go’,” she told the court.

Listen to how calm Henri is during that call and it’s tough not to get the chills.

Moving on, here’s some of what Op’t Hof had to say:

[She] testified that she had heard raised voices coming from the Van Breda house between 22:00 and shortly after midnight on the morning of the axe attack…

“It wasn’t a happy sound. It sounded serious. It wasn’t pleasant,” she testified.

Op’t Hof [below], an interior decorator, said she had been working late after putting her two children to bed.

She went to bed after midnight, and her baby monitor woke her just before 04:00. Her infant was wide awake and she took him to her bed, where she found her older child too.

He was wide awake too, Op’t Hof recalled, which was out of the ordinary as he never woke up during the night, she said…

When asked why she didn’t call security or the police, she said she had gotten a fright but “didn’t think they were going to kill each other”.

“I didn’t want to interfere,” she told the court.

Had someone called for help, Op’t Hof testified that she would have reacted. No one had sought assistance from her that night or morning, she said.

“It’s strange that Henri didn’t come to my door and come and ask me for help.”

There is so much that is ‘strange’ about this one.

The trial continues today.

[source:news24]

[imagesources:here&here]