Grieving mother wants justice after daughter’s death

“I do not want my grandkids to grow up knowing who the killer of their mother is. She was the only ‘firewood’ of the family,” said the grieving mother after her daughter’s death.

With tears in her eyes, Bertha Isack (53) explains how the life of her daughter Katrina Hendrik (35) was cut short by her “short-term boyfriend”.

Hendrik was murdered by her boyfriend, Petrus Abusema (29), at a shack in the Kanaan area at Gobabis in July 2020. “I only heard the following day that my daughter had died after an argument with her then boyfriend. I was shocked and heartbroken since she was the only one who used to run errands, cook and do all the work. Why my daughter,” says Isack.Isack says her heart is not at peace and she was against the relationship.

“I never liked that guy, but he was forcing her to be in a relationship. She left behind two beautiful daughters that I now have to look after,” she says.

Isack says since her daughter’s death, the boyfriend’s family never apologised for the damage their son caused. “I just want justice to be done. He is still in prison and he must remain there. Since my daughter’s death, his family never came to me to apologise or show any remorse about what their son did. He must just get life in prison, so the kids can’t see who their mother’s killer is,” she said.

Isack says the couple was only together for two to four months. “I didn’t know who he was, but they used to SMS each other. I don’t really know what the words are exactly,” she says.

Isack says she had six children.

“I’m heartbroken, her boyfriend died in 2019, my daughter in 2020 and my husband died in 2021. Now, I have no one to assist me with the kids. I just hope God is preparing me for something good in life,” she says.

Hendrik was working as a cleaner at a local establishment. Community leader Johannes Dam says knowing the family and how helpful Hendrik was to her family, the murderer deserves life in prison.

“She (Hendrik) was like a man in the family. Considering the pain of the family members, life in prison should be justice served. Even the kids growing up seeing him around they would be scared of him and in their minds he remains a killer,” he says.

In June, New Era reported that Windhoek High Court judge Dinnah Usiku found Abusema guilty of murder without intent to kill his romantic partner during sexual intercourse.

According to the judge, the state did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Abusema intended to kill Hendrik during the early morning of 18 July 2020, but that he must have foreseen that his actions could cause her death.

According to the summary of substantial facts, Abusema and Hendrik were in an intimate relationship, while he was also in a relationship with another woman. During the night in question, he visited Hendrik at her shack in the Kanaan area of Gobabis and he was intimate with her. An argument erupted between them, and Abusema strangled Hendrik.

In this case, the judge said, Abusema admitted to having strangled her. The judge found that the strangling led to Hendrik’s death.

The accused is in custody and returns to court on 10 November for a presentencehearing .