Cousin murders

On the afternoon of Monday, 10 January 1966, 12-year-old cousins Petronella (Petro) Nel and Magrieta (Issie) Fourie left the Nel family home in Odendaalsrus, South Africa, to go swimming at the municipal pool. Fourie was visiting from Zambia. Their movements that day were meant to be supervised by Fourie's brother, Andre Fourie, who arrived late.

Brothers John David Theron and Barend Theron were driving through Odendaalsrus that day en route from their home in Elsburg, East Rand, to Kimberley. The brothers picked up the two girls and took them to an abandoned double-storey building at the disused Freddies mine, roughly 1.2 km from the swimming pool. Inside the building, the brothers asked the girls to consent to sex; when they refused, Barend produced a pistol and ordered them to undress. When they again refused, the girls were forcibly stripped, and Fourie was bound with electric wire. Barend took Nel to the building's first floor, taking Fourie's clothing and belongings with him. John Theron raped Fourie, who was a virgin, in a safe on the ground floor. Barend then shot Fourie dead and also shot Nel, whose hands and feet were tied. The brothers abandoned their trip to Kimberley and returned home to Elsburg. The girls' bodies were discovered the following day.

The case went unsolved for years. Barend Theron, described as the alleged main perpetrator, died in 1976 after jumping from the third floor of the Capitol Hotel in Bloemfontein, before any suspect had been publicly identified in connection with the killings.

In 1984 — 19 years after the murders — John David Theron confided in a fellow prison inmate and confessed to his involvement in the crime. He and a man named Diederick Steenkamp then appeared in court in Odendaalsrus on 27 March 1984 on charges of murder and rape. Steenkamp had an alibi and was acquitted. Theron denied having murdered the girls himself. His case was tried in the Circuit Court at Odendaalsrus before Judge R Smuts and one assessor; he pleaded guilty, and a written statement was submitted under section 112(2) of Act 51 of 1977. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, later reduced to 6 years on appeal.

The killings received extensive national news coverage at the time, first reported by Chris (Molie) Moolman, the Goudveld correspondent for Die Volksblad, who obtained details from the detective chief in Welkom. The story was later dramatised in the Afrikaans kykNET television thriller Niggies, written by Saartjie Botha and Philip Rademeyer, which aired from 25 March to 6 May 2025.