Kotze, 51, had unexpectedly arrived at Van der Merwe's Limpopo home around 8am on Thursday after eluding police for eight days.

Kotze had gone on the run following the gang-rape of his estranged wife, Ina Bonnette: the 42-year-old had allegedly been stripped and tortured for two hours with a screwdriver, angle grinder, nails and pliers by Kotze and then raped by three men. Ina had allegedly heard her son, Conrad Bonnette, 19, begging for his life before he was executed outside the master bedroom in which she was tied up.

Van der Merwe was Kotze's landlord: he owned the house in which his friend had lived alone and where Conrad had died.

"He just stood there ... looking like a zombie," Van der Merwe said of Kotze's sudden appearance on Thursday. "I was so scared. He asked me if he could have a shower and I started to phone the police.

"He didn't say anything. I asked him if he wanted coffee or water. He asked for some coffee. Then my son came in and was keeping an eye on him while I made the coffee. And then the police came."

Van der Merwe, a dental technician, said Kotze had phoned him after the gruesome attack and murder on Tuesday January 3.

"[Kotze] was crying and saying he didn't want to live any more. I asked my wife to [go to the house and] check on him. She phoned me screaming ... All I could hear was that someone was shot and that I must phone the police."

On the day of the murder, Kotze and Van der Merwe were supposed to go on a camping trip, but Kotze had phoned to say he wanted to meet Ina to sort things out before they could leave.

On Wednesday January 4 Kotze, who owns a company involved in the meat industry, phoned his friend again.

"He phoned on my landline at home and said it wasn't his fault - it was all her [Ina's] fault," Van der Merwe said. "I tried to get him to tell me where he was but all he wanted to know was if his [16-year-old] daughter [from his first marriage] was all right."

On Wednesday this week, Kotze was spotted at a local cafe buying cool drinks. The 51-year-old fled in his car, but crashed into a tree and ran off. The next morning he arrived on Van der Merwe's doorstep.

Kotze had "constantly" talked about his separation from Ina, Van der Merwe said. The couple had married in October 2010, but Ina had left her new husband four months later.

"We used to get frustrated with him," Van der Merwe said. "He went on and on about their separation. He always made her [Ina] out to be the bad person. He said she was a liar and complained about her being a smoker. That was a big issue."

In Kotze's rented house, meanwhile, there is little evidence left of the attack.

Van der Merwe himself cleaned all the blood from the three-bedroom home, and new sheets were laid on the four-poster bed in which Ina was allegedly raped.

But Kotze's presence is still evident: all his belongings remain in the house, including a well-stocked liquor cabinet and a weight-loss record book.

Yesterday the fourth and final suspect in the rape and murder was arrested - after Kotze and one of his alleged accomplices had faced an angry community outside the Modimolle Magistrate's Court on Friday.

Kotze and his co-accused face 17 charges, including rape, murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to rape, kidnapping, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and sexual assault. They were remanded in custody until February 10.

Conrad, an IT student at the University of Pretoria, was buried in Bela-Bela (Warmbaths) on the same day his step-father appeared in court.