Tragic murder-suicide in Kalksteenfontein community shocks residents

“They were very good people, they were not just good for each other or together, especially when they drank together…”

These were the words of Bilqees “Beaula” Peters, whose son, 31-year-old Riaan Hendricks, was found hanging from his bedroom window last week.

The Kalksteenfontein community was left in complete shock after a suspected murder-suicide in which Hendricks allegedly stabbed his 27-year-old girlfriend, Megan Marthinus, originally from Kreefgat, to death before taking his own life. The couple, who had been dating on and off for about a year, were known to have a tumultuous relationship marked at times by arguments and alleged abuse.

According to a well-placed source, an argument reportedly broke out between the two on the day of the incident. Hendricks allegedly stabbed Marthinus in the stomach during the altercation. Her body was found on the bed of their home in  Inkblom Street, Kalksteenfontein, on Tuesday, 7 October 2025, while Hendricks was discovered hanging from a cord in the bedroom window nearby.

“It’s believed he must have killed himself about two days after Megan died,” the source said, adding that “blood trails showed that the body had been moved from room to room.”

Riaan’s mother, Bilqees Peters, said the family is struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.

“The Friday before this happened, Riaan and Megan still came to me,” she told Weekend Argus.

“He stood there and looked at me and said, ‘Mommy, I want to change my life.’ I told him nothing is stopping him, then this…”

Peters said she was aware of the couple’s volatile relationship and had repeatedly warned them to stay away from each other.

“There was a time I heard he punched Megan. I still told her to leave him and open a case against him. I begged her to stay away because I wouldn’t want that for my own daughter why would I want it for her? She was a good person, she was just not good for him as a girlfriend because of the drinking they did together,” Peters said tearfully.

“All I could do was pray for them. Now I wish they never met each other.”

Community leader and Kalksteenfontein CPF executive member Pastor Seth Oosthuizen said he knew Hendricks as a gentle soul who often sought guidance and prayer.

“There were a few times when he asked me to pray for him,” Oosthuizen recalled.

“Once was when he applied for a job, and the others were about leaving alcohol, he wanted to stop and change his life around.”

He said the news of the deaths left him in complete shock.

“I didn’t expect it. I don’t think anyone did. We knew they argued a lot, and about the drinking, but never this. I don’t know why he would take his life. Maybe he felt everything was too much? I’m still trying to understand because he had a job, a house, and a car.”

Oosthuizen described suicide as a growing crisis.

“It’s often the selfish choices of oneself that lead to such thoughts,” he said. “We often speak about this at open airs prayer meetings. Suicide is rife in our communities. It comes with a sense of hopelessness, like people feel they have no value in life and that’s the only way out. I wish more young people would open up and talk about their thoughts so that we can help them and pray for them.”

October is Mental Health Month in South Africa, and the tragedy comes amid a growing national crisis.

On World Mental Health Day, October 10, global organisations issue calls for awareness, while a silent and escalating epidemic is claiming more lives in South Africa than car crashes, crime, or accidents.

Overall, suicide now accounts for 35% of all unnatural death claims – well ahead of motor vehicle accidents (23%) and crime (17%).

Yael Geffen, CEO of Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty and a prominent mental health advocate, highlights the systemic challenges. “We have spent years, rightly, trying to destigmatise mental health conditions. We’ve encouraged people to talk, to share, to say, ‘It’s okay not to be okay.

“But we are now facing a brutal reality: what good is talking if there is nowhere for people to go for professional, accessible help? We are sending people into a battle armed only with words, when they need clinicians, medication, and sustained therapy.

“The time for gentle reminders is over,” Geffen added.

“We are in a state of emergency. We have the data. We know the human and economic cost. Now we need the political will and the budgetary commitment to match the scale of the crisis. Otherwise, the sad truth is that the talking we’ve done will just be echoes in our graveyards.”

tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za

Weekend Argus