Phone used to search for info on axe murders found at van Breda murder scene

One of the phones found at the scene of the van Breda murders was apparently used to search for information on axe murders, according to a report.

News 24 reports that a source told them that the police forensics unit made the find after going through the search histories of the house's cellphones and computers.

While they did not say whose phone it was, someone had been searching for information on the axe attack of Peter and Joan Portco in the US.

According to Spotlight News in December of 2006, Christopher Portco was sentenced to 50 years in prison for killing his father Peter and trying to kill his mother Joan.

"In sentencing you today, I must make you understand because I fear very much what happened in the early morning hours of November 2004 is something that could happen again" Judge Jeffrey Berry when he handed down his sentence in that case.

Marli Van Breda's mother, Teresa, her father, Martin and brother, Rudi were brutally killed with an axe at their Stellenbosch Golf estate home.

Marli was gravely injured and left for dead during the brutal attack. She suffered blows to the head and face and her attacker had tried to sever her jugular vein.

Marli's other brother Henri claimed that an axe wielding intruder attacked him and his family.  He summoned emergency services to the property more than three hours after the attack.

Advocate Pieter Botha, who represented Briton Shrien Dewani during his murder trial, said he had been appointed to represent Henri.

Marli meanwhile was discharged from hospital into an exclusive, high-care rehabilitation facility in the Helderberg area, where she remains under police guard.

Last week The Times reported that Marli van Breda and her brother Henri are the main beneficiaries of their parents estate, valued at about R200 million according to a source close to the family.