Sororicide, sisters killing sisters is one of the rarest categories of homicide, yet the theme is not new to humankind. The Twa Sisters is a traditional murder ballad, dating at least as far back as the mid-17th century, recounting the love triangle of a younger fair-haired girl drowned at sea or a river by her jealous older dark-haired sister, over the affections of a young man. When the victim‘s body floats to shore, someone shapes a musical instrument from it, and the instrument then plays by itself, revealing the older sister as the murderess. It first appeared on a broadside in 1656 as “The Miller and the King’s Daughter” and in 1830 it appeared in a Scottish version entitled “Binnorie”. The theme of the ballad is paralleled in Scandinavia, Poland, Ukraine, Iceland and Slovenia.
South African Amanda du Toit
On a Monday afternoon, 19 September 1994 Ria du Toit received a telephone call at work from her hysterical 16-year-old daughter, Amanda telling her a masked attacker had stabbed her 13-year-old sister Ciska to death in her bedroom at their luxury Mount Pleasant home in Port Elizabeth. Ria rushed home to find the police had already arrived on the scene. Amanda had a bandage wrapped around her head. The police refused Ria permission to see Ciska. She accompanied Amanda to hospital, where her eldest daughter Irene joined them.
A distraught Amanda related that both she and Ciska had been home that afternoon studying for their exams. Amanda went to the kitchen to make a sandwich when she heard Ciska scream from her room. She rushed over to find a masked and gloved man bending over Ciska, stabbing her. “I thought only of my sister,” said Amanda and told how she kicked the man away. He fell and when she bent over to her sister, he stabbed her with the knife in the head and fled. Amanda phoned the police and returned to hold her dying sister in her arms. Ciska convulsed and then died. Amanda then phoned her mother. “Her white little face and the amount of blood will always remain with me,” she sobbed.
The police launched a massive manhunt for the killer, including air support. Amanda helped to draw up an identikit although the man had worn a balaclava and gloves. She was not sure of his race. A reward of R50 000 was posted for information leading to the arrest. The community was shocked at the senseless murder. Nothing had been taken from the five-bedroom, luxurious house, so burglary was excluded. The police investigated satanic links, but Ria denied that any of her daughters were involved in satanism. Since her divorce from her husband in 1990, mother and daughters had lived a happy life in the house she had bought from him. Ria’s boyfriend shared their home.
For weeks the family agonized and lived in fear that the attacker might return. Amanda wrote her mother supportive little letters in an effort to console her, but Ria could not bring herself to change anything in Ciska’s room. A bouquet of roses, retrieved from Ciska’s grave, hung in Amanda’s room. Newspapers praised her bravery in trying to save her sister’s life, by fearlessly attacking the masked man.
Detective Sergeant Derick Norsworthy of the Port Elizabeth Murder and Robbery Unit had a nagging feeling about the case. During Ciska’s funeral he noticed Amanda placing a little letter on the coffin just before it descended into the grave. It puzzled him how the attacker would know that the 20cm bread knife that was used in the attack, hung behind the kitchen door. Amanda had minor injuries to her head, while Ciska had multiple stab wounds. He revisited the crime scene and established it would have been impossible for an intruder to jump over the back fence and not be seen, since there was a sewing factory right behind the house, full of people. The police closely studied photographs taken during the funeral, especially one of Amanda bending over the grave.
About three weeks after the murder, Derick informed Ria with his suspicion that Amanda might have been involved. Ciska’s grave was opened and the little letter was retrieved. In it Amanda expressed her deepest sorrow about Ciska’s death, but there was no incriminating evidence. Derick began interviewing Amanda’s friends. A different picture emerged.
Amanda had been exchanging coded letters with a friend. In her letters Amanda referred to Stephen King’s 1998-novel The Little Sisters of Eluria, where the protagonist falls into the hands of a sect of vampire nuns, with Sister Jenna falling in love with him and trying to escape. Amanda had written she wanted to kill her sister like a nun was killed in the book. Amanda also admitted to being a Satanist.
The detectives returned to the house to search Amanda’s room. Six weeks after the murder, the detectives phoned Ria to warn her that they would want to interrogate Amanda the following evening. They arrived at about nine o’clock that night and escorted Ria, her boyfriend and Amanda to the police station. Two of Amanda’s friends were already there.
When a female senior police officer interrogated her and screamed at her, she clammed up, like any teenager would. Sergeant Derick had been trained in interrogation strategies and decided on a more humane approach and Amanda opened up.
Amanda told Derick her father had been an alcoholic and the children witnessed him dragging their mother into the street and holding a firearm to her head. Family violence was not uncommon. Amanda, the middle child felt like the odd-one-out. She claimed Cisca was their mother’s favourite and Cisca was a little achiever and excelled in sport. Their mother promised both girls Doc Marten boots if they achieved an 80% grade. Amanda made 79%, but Cisca made the 80%. Cisca received the boots but Amanda not. Her resentment had been brewing.
She admitted to Derick on the afternoon of the murder she went to the kitchen to make hot chocolate. Cisca arrived home and they had an argument about the front door being left open. Then they had an argument when Cisca turned the sound of the television up. Tempers were escalating and they swore at each other. Amanda returned to the kitchen and Cisca followed and threatened to steal Amanda’s boyfriend. Ciska then kicked her on the shin and ran out. In a fit of rage, Amanda picked up the kitchen knife and pursued Ciska. She stabbed her in the back. Ciska swung around and attempted to hit Amanda. She saw the knife and began to scream. Amanda panicked and thought only of silencing her sister’s screams. She threw her down on the bed and pushed her hand over Ciska’s mouth. She started to choke her. Ciska put up a fight and got hold of the knife. She managed to stab Amanda in the forehead. “Suddenly hate and anger overcame me. I could not focus clearly. I was on top of Ciska; my one hand was round her throat and I tried to get the knife with the other hand. Ciska looked cross but not scared.” Amanda managed to get hold of the knife and continued stabbing her sister. She realized what she had done and ran from the room to phone the police, concocting the story about the masked intruder. She returned to Ciska’s bedroom to hear her gasping for breath. Then she called her mother.
At about midnight, Derick informed Ria that Amanda had confessed to killing Ciska. Ria could not believe it. A flood of contradicting emotions overpowered her. She just could not face Amanda right then. The following day, Amanda was charged with murder. She entered a plea of culpable homicide before Mr Justice Hennie Liebenberg. At that stage, since she was still a minor, the judge refused her identity to be revealed in the press, although everybody knew her.
Dr Ivor Laing, the district surgeon testified that 12 stab wounds had penetrated Ciska’s chest and abdomen. Of the six wounds that penetrated her lungs, five could have caused her death. Her lungs collapsed due to the amount of blood flooding them and she would have taken about ten minutes to die, after losing consciousness.
Dr Maurice Magner, a psychiatrist from Lentegeur Psychiatric Hospital who had evaluated Amanda, testified that she suffered from borderline personality disorder. She was emotionally vulnerable and could murder again if provoked.
It turned out that Amanda, whom her mother described as her sensitive, artistic, eccentric child, the one most likely to bring her flowers and write her little love letters, was a disturbed young woman, consumed with hate and obsessive jealousy towards her sister. Amanda had also two previous convictions of theft against her. She suffered from an inferiority complex and saw herself as the “ugly duckling of the family.” Psychologists testified that Amanda was a rebellious teenager, and that matters were aggravated by her parents’ divorce. She was described as a lonely, anxious and confused teenager. Sexual molestation, aggression, violence, alcoholism, favouritism, jealousy and rejection were proposed as reasons leading up the moment when Amanda snapped. Amanda was interviewed by Dr Irma Labuschagne, well-known criminologist. She told Dr Labuschagne: “Every knife thrust was not to kill my sister, but I saw my mother’s face in front of me. I wanted to hurt her and I knew I did so.”
Mr Justice Liebenberg rejected Amanda’s plea of culpable homicide saying that her friend’s evidence about Amanda admitting she wanted to kill her sister, proved that Amanda had been premeditating the murder. In May the following year, he sentenced her to 15 years imprisonment, suspended for five years. Effectively Amanda had to serve a period of ten years.
After the sentencing Ria struggled to come to terms with the loss of her two daughters. Ria admitted she had raised her daughters liberally, allowing them to commence dating at age 15 years. Amanda always wanted to join the police, she said, while Ciska was a little tomboy who wanted to become a teacher. Ciska had achieved provincial colours in netball. Amanda had been a prefect in primary school and she was the favourite of their minister. She used to sit next to him when he picked up the children for Sunday school. Ria denied having any favourites. Amanda’s boyfriend and her elder sister Irene, distanced themselves from the family. Ria said the only way she could cope was not to think about her two daughters at the same time. She missed Ciska, and then she could not think of Amanda. When she thought of Amanda, she missed her and could not bear to think of her as her daughter’s murderess.
In her cell, Amanda posted photographs of Ciska to her wall. She wanted to be reminded of what she had done, although she still could not believe that she had done it. She celebrated her 18 birthday without any ado in prison. She managed to complete her grade 12. When she turned 18, Amanda was transferred to the adult section at Kroonstad prison for women. She had completed training in hair dressing and make-up and worked at the hairdressing salon. She also completed a course in commercial art. On National Women’s Day in 2000 she was crowned as Miss Kroonstad in prison.
Amanda slept with Ciska’s little stuffed teddy bear every night. She dreamt beautiful dreams of her sister and mostly she remembered the fun she and her sister shared. She had time for introspection in prison. Her elder sister Irene had reached out a hand of friendship again, which meant much to Amanda.
On 19 October 2002, after spending seven years in prison, 24-year-old Amanda du Toit was released on parole. She had cut her long blond hair and sported a neat dark haircut. She was transported to Port Elizabeth and rejoined her mother in their Mount Pleasant home. Neither Ciska nor Amanda’s bedrooms had been altered. Both were still crowded with stuffed toys. Only the blood-stained carpet in Ciska’s room had been replaced. Mother and daughter seemed emotionally reunited, but Amanda said when she had traced and phoned her father from prison to inform him that she was going home, he seemed not to be interested. The community ostracised her and she found it difficult to adapt. She began drinking heavily, moved out of her home and could not keep a permanent job.
Her encounter with Sergeant Derick Norsworthy did not end. One night while he was having dinner in a restaurant, Amanda was the waitress who served him. He left the restaurant. Years later after Derick had left the Police Force he worked for an insurance company. A young woman had driven her car into a tree and died in the fatal accident. Derick read the deceased was the 31-year-old Amanda du Toit.
Top image: The Merciless Lady by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: (1865) (Public Domain)