Why did Henri van Breda murder his family? | 60 Minutes Australia

twenty-three-year-old Henry Van Breda lived a privileged life growing up in Perth and on the sunshine coast of Queensland then a few years ago he and his well-to-do family moved back here to the beautiful vineyards of Stellenbosch in their homeland of South Africa all appeared well until one night in January 2015 when Henry's mother father and brother were brutally murdered slaughtered by a man wielding an axe last month the court decided that that man was Henry and sentenced him to life behind bars but there's one person who's not so convinced Danijela Yan saw van Rensburg believes Henry her boyfriend is not a killer but a victim it's just after 7:00 in the morning in the affluent South African wine region of Stellenbosch and you the patient might think everyone everyone poor people yet twenty-year-old Henry Van Breda is calling for him [Music] I don't think so my sister's moving but that's it are they any suspects one team no no they ran away with what were they okay and you need the ambulance to go to what number 12 Oscar Street he is calm and in control the go8 okay totally at odds with someone who's claiming he's just witnessed his family being attacked with an X unconscious yes and bleeding from the head incredibly as his parents brother and sister lay dead or dying Henry spends more than 25 minutes on the phone with emergency services how long will the atomistic I don't be too long so shameless crime in South Africa is not unusual but even the police and paramedics who see it every day weren't ready for what was to come the moment you walk upstairs you see the blood spatter and stuff and then you think to yourself what happened here what do we know Detective Sergeant Marlon Apollo's has been a policeman for 14 years and he was about to step into the biggest case of his career he was particularly vicious wasn't it it was I mean together all family acts that to death it is it is difficult you wouldn't expect a crime like this to happen in a security complex in police like stellenbosch yet that's exactly what happened and perhaps most shocking of all was the notion that the enemy had been living in the family home that Henry Van Breda a son and brother did this what did Henry tell you had happened he told me everything he was very open he was very honest daniela yun say then rinse Berg is Henry's girlfriend she refuses to accept that the man she loves is a cold-blooded murderer if Henry did do this he will have to be a psychopath I guess yeah probably it would be devastating for you I mean he actually found out that Henry did yes but it's not something that had all crosses my mind and Henry's aren't Leanne tournelle has vowed to support her nephew regardless of his guilt is it possible that it's just too terrible to accept that Henry did do this it could be that it's too terrible to contemplate however nothing in my mind can think that it was possible or reason did there is no motive in my mind the van brothers were well known 56 year-old Martin and his 55 year old wife Teresa de TOI came from wealthy well-established South African families with their three children Rudi 23 Henry 20 and daughter Molly 16 this was a strong Christian tight-knit family we often spoke about how we do with our children discipline our children interaction between children and husband those fantasies and you had no hint of any serious issues no no I never picked up anything that there was they that there was a problem in the family that could result in this terrible not brutal event not at all the van brothers had lived in Australia for nearly eight years but in 2014 they moved back to South Africa leaving sons Rudy and Henry behind to attend University when they arrived in Stellenbosch Martin Teresa and Molly moved into des alsa Golf Estate a high-security gated community with electric fences CCTV and thermal cameras 24-hour patrols and limited access she said to me this is safe safe safe in this gated community but it wasn't to be on a hot summer's night On January 27th the Van Breda family were together Rudy and Henry were home from Australia they had dinner together and by midnight everyone was in bed but within hours they were savagely attacked what was this case so compelling I think the conception of people that it's happy families nasty things don't happen in good families or happy families it was the job of Cape Town prosecutor Susan Galloway to test the story as told by Henry Van Breda Henry played an important role either as a weak victim or as an an accused or a suspect he was on the scene he lived through the whole sequence and according to Henry in the early hours of the morning an intruder broke into the house the family was asleep upstairs except for Henry who was in the bathroom Henry says he saw a tall black man wearing a balaclava gloves and dark clothes go into the bedroom he shared with Rudy and suddenly attack his brother with an X it does appear that Rudy was seemingly asleep or at least in his bed yes that was the evidence of the pathologist and a blood stain an analyst that he was attacked first he was in his bed Henry says he cried out for help waking his father Martin who then came into their room the presumption is that the father then came in and tried to protect Rudy Henry now out of the bathroom says he was unable to move and instead stood watching frozen with fear and in the mother and Marley the dream after system is the sister know and they too have been attacked yes was an ex with an ex it was only then that Henry says he struggled with the intruder whom he claims laughed as he will did his ex he's a lucky man it was a very lucky man with this xvx wielding attacker and no exit act for Henry yeah in his version the same attacker with the same intent using the same weapon but the result is much different Henry says the attackers suddenly produced a knife and stabbed him and then flavored bizarrely Henry's first thought wasn't to call for help but to instead call his then sixteen-year-old girlfriend Bianca she didn't pick up Henry then says he passed out on the stairs just after 7:00 in the morning Henry says he regains consciousness and calls for help my standing and we were attacked but okay his sister Marley on the brink of death is rushed to surgery the ax wounds she suffers are horrific and in deep contrast to Henry who's treated for superficial cuts what was he like like total calm you would expect hold it rates and stuff inside but he was nothing he was just calm but when he's telling you this story are you thinking to yourself well is it possibly true can it be what he's telling me can it be the truth well to me personally I said to myself no this can't be yeah I knew this can be but I can't just say you know you're lying I have to prove it coming up no doubt from the police what kind of person does do this I would say a psycho but Daniella stands by her man I felt very safe around him you have never feared him and the prosecution's damning evidence is DNA the blood spatter that was important for me that was the cherry on on the cake that's next on 60 minutes did you ever say to Henry did you do this no no you never said didn't tell me it look me in the eye that you didn't do this you didn't murder your family I did not do that term now the one person who refuses to believe Henry Van Breda could murder his own family is his girlfriend 23 year old Daniella Yonsei van Rensburg she is now his biggest defender you have never feared Henry know you've never felt privately know he might have done this no I felt very safe around him not long after the murders daniela met Henry at a cooking school where they were both enrolled do you remember the first time we met yes it was in an elevator at chef school I think I asked him about Australia because he had an accent and he was always just talking about Australia and he just told me a little bit about Australia and he was quite shy you had no idea who Henry was no no not at that stage now and how did you find out I found out through the internet I saw I saw an article and then I saw him and then I was like oh that really does make sense because he does not talk a lot about his family your first reaction was oh I was actually not hurt but um I felt really heartbroken for him I think this was the first night he told me he loved me though but yeah that's why I chose this photo within months of Daniella falling for Henry he was officially charged with murdering his mother his father and brother and the attempted murder of his sister Daniella was unfazed unable to reconcile the man she knows with the man Henry was alleged to be what makes you so convinced just knowing him knowing how unable he is to hurt anything he doesn't like seeing anybody or anything in pain he honestly he will rather be in pain just to help someone else out he is very selfless nothing made me think that it doesn't add up his story still always made sense to me with the lack of evidence Detective Sergeant Marla nopales and his team always felt Henry's story just didn't stack up right from the moment he claimed an intruder broke into the family home there's no breach of security the house has not been clearly broken into and nothing's been taken and all the valuables are on the bottom floor yeah most of the variables were darling the bottom floor there was what's lying around there was Teresa's handbag was downstairs on the table nothing was taken [Music] did it occur to you though that it it seemed an incredibly brutal thing to do a family sleeping the valuables are downstairs yeah what would be the purpose I don't know I really don't know in your own mind have you quit have you thought it through these things yes because I don't really comes into the house but doesn't take anything but he can't probably take something he probably thought that he had to get rid of the people stopping him from taking something that they're asleep upstairs they're in their beds have you not thought through why would an intruder do that I have but I can't answer it because I mean all situations are just different you can't you can't just assume either when Henry faced court in March last year he was pitted against no-nonsense prosecutor Susan Galloway in an extraordinary courtroom moment she insisted Henry reenact his version of the crime most people if you in that kind of an altercation will tell you listen I don't know what blow followed what blow I just knew he was coming at me with an annex which I managed to take from him he was able to give almost a choreographed version of the arms and the hands and the weapons how did Henry feel about doing that very bad he hated the fact that he would have had to he didn't want to come close to the weapon but perhaps the most damning evidence was that the knife wounds Henry suffered were in fact self-inflicted what was it about those wounds that ultimately said to you yes Henry Van Breda has done this to himself they were all very superficial they've barely broke the skin they were uniform so they were similar in nature that a similar appearance it looked as if it could have been inflicted with the same weapon so you can see the bandage this no it's not blood sir Henry's injuries were analyzed by a forensic pathologist dr. Mary Ann 2mins ma you know if you think you were just involved in an altercation of a physical fight the struggle for life and death you know people holding on to each other you would maybe expect to see bruises around the forearms around the upper arm as you're pulling and pushing and but nothing for Henry to get away with this no as you say must be the luckiest man alive [Music] you didn't find it all then Henry suffered very little by comparison to the rest of his family no I didn't because I wasn't there I don't know really what happened I mean anything can happen in a circumstance like that so you can't really judge a picture just by looking at that indeed much of what doesn't make sense Danijela puts down - Henry's recent diagnosis of epilepsy she believes Henry's claimed that he'd passed out that night for nearly three hours because he'd suffered a seizure but she says impaired his memory and explains the many inconsistencies in his story so everything you see through that prism now that you feel that that's what dictated the evening and Henry's explanations his actions and his in actions yes the seizure in your opinion is the reason it's not necessarily the reason it just does put a lot of things together maybe things that I was previously a bit confused about absolutely made sense yeah to have passed out for nearly three hours was that considered possible if when things about the river lots of blood that dried on Henry's chest those droplets didn't deviate so if he had passed out one would have expected the path of the blood river lots to change and there didn't say pasta sitting sitting upright yes just scared I couldn't for the prosecution the pieces of circumstantial evidence who are beginning to paint a damning picture forensic analysis of blood spatter at the crime scene and on Henry shorts and socks further exposed his story as a lie for me that was the cherry on on the cake his version of having stood inside the bathroom behind that door could not have possibly been because there was no blood spatter around that door on the door itself but they were blood spatter on his clothes socks boxer shorts it doesn't matter you can't have the one and not the other what do you think happened that night I think there was an argument during the evening it was probably about something that's a long-standing issue in the family and I think in his mind it bolt up to something more than it really was but it seemed to him the right decision to make and to take out his anger on his brother and and once you once he started on that road especially once the father found out what was going on there was no way to stop unless he was willing to admit that I had just killed my brother so that's why the rest of the family had to die I think so coming up it's just plain criminality is it cowardly no I think is actually everything the judge decides it was a cold-blooded murder but still more support for the killer there is no motive but I love you so so much and been brothers letters from journal they are amazing too that's next on 60 minutes they faced an axe-wielding son or brother three and a half years after the ban buried our family was brutally attacked with an axe Henry then bird are stood in the court to learn his fate the murder of Rudy hundred are your sentence to life imprisonment in all Henry received three life sentences he said it was like losing your sister all over again all over again because it means yeah I I it was it was hard for me to hear that it was it was hard to believe for Henry's aunt Lee internal hearing that her sister's son was the murderer was shattering did you ever ask Henry if he did it no should you I didn't think I could but yes I would isn't that the one question that you almost have to ask tell me Henry did you do this I wonder whether I'm I'm not bothered now whether he did it or not I want to emotionally support him so I can that's extraordinary I I'm interested that's all but that's extraordinary to hear you say that because that's that's saying it if he did it then I will still support him I will but if you accept that he did it this young man murdered your sister murdered your brother-in-law murdered your nephew tried to murder his sister but the Henry that I know nothing in the 19 years that I knew him led me to think that there is a danger in Henry [Music] and for Daniella the sentiment is the same she's only ever known Henry as a loving partner it feels so good to be writing to you I feel like you're here with me and nothing helps me more than that their romance continues only now Daniela has to be content with litters of love from Henry written from inside his prison cell but I love you so so much and I cannot wait to be able to look at you in the eyes kiss you and tell you how do you feel when you get these letters they are amazing to me I think they're really well-written so to me and it's lovely to hear about how much he loves me and how he still feels the same way about me as he used to it is perplexing that the same young man who shows such deep love for his girlfriend is also capable of killing the ones who loved him most what kind of person does do this then in your opinion I would say a psychopath I would say because no normal human would do that to his own family would like to think that there is something wrong with a person who does something like this but unfortunately you just get people who it's just plain criminality we want to know that there's something wrong because otherwise the-- the possibility is there that each one of us are capable of something like this and you don't want to believe that of yourself or the people you know and trust this extraordinary isn't it it can be that because of his youth he didn't really think through the consequences of his actions not that he didn't accept it at that moment and you think that this is I'm so angry now this is the only solution does that mean it's possible he's remorseful now if if he is remorseful he would have come forward and said listen I'm sorry I did that I'm sorry for the pain and the loss for the rest of my family but he doesn't do that even is he cowardly no I think is actually arrogant [Music] perhaps the only person who could tell us who Henry Van bird are is is his sister Molly but after suffering several ax wounds to the head she has no memory of that night does she accept the verdict you know if there is a hidden silver lining about her trauma then it is that she doesn't linger on if she accepts the verdict though she accepts that Henry did do this I will not go there because I don't think definitely we in talking with her we don't discuss it can you stay with a man who might have to spend the rest of his life behind bars speaking for myself right now I do say yes but I can't I don't know it's hard to say that I will be able to forever but I yes I do think so you've not been manipulated no not by Annie you know you've not been blindsided by him no what would it take to change your mind about Henry if he actually said he was guilty pony I'd need him to say that yeah well you know if some one of those cameras or actual evidence to me in my opinion what would be evidence like real hard evidence Henry's always going to be the innocent man yeah hello I'm Liz Hayes thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our Channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusives 60 Minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 3,476,794

Rating: 4.5280471 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, Henri van Breda, killing his family, murder, south africa, crime, investigation, family, sister, axe, killer, henri, family crimes, kids that kill, siblings, Tom Steinfort, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Peter Harvey, retrograde amnesia, life sentence, prison, quilty, convicted

Id: XzzP1ui_aGk

Length: 28min 0sec (1680 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019