WATCH | 'Why my sister?': Hillary Gardee's brother speaks of pain and loss

Twenty-three-year-old Noble Gardee's wide shoulders deflate as he softly addresses the heartbreak he is suffering in the wake of the discovery of his 28-year-old sister Hillary's body on May 3. 

“She liked supporting, helping people in need. She was bubbly, she was critical. She was ... loving.”  

Hillary's body was found with stab wounds and a bullet wound to the back of the head by timber workers outside Mbombela. 

“I want to know why, why my sister? She didn't have any enemies, she didn't have any people who hated her, so we just don't know why,” Noble says. 

Hillary lived with her brother and the two had enjoyed a close relationship, especially after the death of their mother. 

“It's painful, every morning when I wake up, knowing she's no longer in the next room. She's no longer in my presence, in our presence.”

He wants to see justice and will remain steadfast in his faith that the law will take its course, otherwise he “wouldn't know what to do”.

The three men accused of Hillary's murder, Sipho Lawrence Mkhatshwa, Phillemon Lukhele and Albert Mduduzi Gama, appeared in court on Monday and didn't apply for bail.

The case is postponed to June 9.

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