The mother of slain Stellenbosch University student Hannah Cornelius drowned on Sunday - less than a year after Hannah was raped and murdered.
Someone close to the family‚ who wished to remain anonymous‚ confirmed that Anna Cornelius‚ 56‚ died on Sunday morning. She leaves behind her husband Willem and son Andries.
Anna’s body was found floating offshore of Scarborough on the Cape Peninsula.
Ian Klopper‚ National Sea Rescue Institute station commander at Kommetjie‚ said it was suspected that Anna had drowned.
“At 9am on Sunday‚ NSRI Kommetjie duty crew launched the sea rescue craft Spirit of the Vines following eyewitness reports of a body floating offshore of Scarborough‚” Klopper said.
“On arrival on the scene the body of an adult female was recovered onto our sea rescue craft from the water 150 metres offshore of Scarborough and NSRI paramedics confirmed the female to be deceased from a suspected fatal drowning accident.”
NSRI took the body to their Kommetjie sea rescue station before it was taken into the care of the Forensic Pathology Services. The police opened an inquest docket.
This comes less than a year after Hannah‚ 21‚ was raped and killed on May 27 last year.
The four men accused of raping and killing Hannah appeared in the High Court in Cape Town on Friday for a pre-trial hearing.
Vernon Witbooi‚ Eben van Niekerk‚ Geraldo Parsons and Nashville Julius will spend another month in jail until their trial gets under way. The case was postponed until April 20‚ because the defence said it had not yet received all the state’s evidence against the men.