A recording has revealed how a young man in South Africa calmly told emergency services that he and his family, who had in recent years returned from Australia, had been attacked with an axe in their home in a gated upscale housing estate.
"My family and me were attacked by a guy with an axe," 20-year-old Henri van Breda said. Asked if his family was "unconscious," he said: "Yes, and bleeding from the head".
At this point during the call, it sounds like van Breda chuckled. He later told the emergency assistant that he would wait in the road for the ambulance, according to a recording on the website of local broadcaster eNCA.
A week ago, the bodies of Martin van Breda, his wife Teresa and their eldest son Rudi were found in their home in Stellenbosch. Daughter Marli, 16, was hospitalised with an axe wound to the head, local media reported.
Her condition had stabilised, according to a statement from the family. Henri van Breda, who was lightly injured in the attack, is now living with relatives.
The murder has made headlines in a country where an average of 47 people are killed each day, according to the Institute of Security Studies.
Relatives of the family are planning a memorial service on Thursday and have asked for privacy.
The van Bredas lived on the exclusive De Zalze estate, where security guards manned the entrance at all times. The estate's manager, Boet Grobler, said he believed it was an isolated incident in the gated community in Stellenbosch, a town in South Africa's wine-farming region.
The family lived in various parts of Australia for several years before returning to South Africa in 2014.
Mr van Breda recently worked in Queensland for Engel & Volkers Australia, which sells and rents premium residential property and commercial real estate.
Rudi and Henri attended Scotch College, a Perth private school.
Rudi was also completing his graduate degree in engineering at the University of Melbourne, where he was on the Dean's honours list for science in 2011.
