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want the kids to move in with me.”
Now she desperately wishes she’d been
able to persuade her daughter to change
her mind.
Her son, Chris (34), claims Lee-Ann
told him a family member was abusing
her. “She told me he sat down next to her
while she was watching television. The
next thing he slipped his hand under the
blanket and touched her,” he says. “I
couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I
was shocked. I tried to intervene but the
person threatened me and my brothers
with a gun.”
Levina says the man also preyed on
Shereé. “She called me about a year ago
and told me she was raped.” Levina starts
to sob, then her face clouds over with
rage towards the relativeaccusedofthe
abuse. “He sat heref
‘I know what yo
done to them. Ho
could you?’ He ju
sat there and starte
crying and saidh
couldn’t help hi
self.”
On the morning
10 July Levina drov
to Brakpan, as usua
to take the childre
some food. It wa
two days after Lee
Ann’s 16th birthday.
“I parked in fronmuch.She’dalsoneverfireda guninher
life,” Chris says. Her body was allegedly
found with the gun in her left hand and
she’d been shot in the left temple. “How
would she have done that? She was
right-handed. You don’t shoot yourself
with your weak hand,” he argues.I
N THE corner of the lounge a man
takes a drag of his cigarette. Jonathan
Steinman’s eyes are red from crying.
“My children didn’t deserve that,” he
says. Jonathan (41) is Shereé and Lee-
Ann’s biological father. He and Sandra
parted ways about 11 years ago. He’d
been estranged from the girls for the past
decade and says he’d struggled to get to
see them.
Lee-Ann had become rebellious in the
past few months, Levina says.
“There was a lot of sadness in her,” she
adds. “Shereé was the most beautiful girl
I’d ever seen. She’d wanted so badly to
matriculate and go to university.”
Levina recalls Simeon as being inquis-
itive. “He was full of energy and always
asked a lot of questions.
“I’d never have thought I’d have to bury
my daughter and grandchildren in
my lifetime,” she says, tears welling up
again. S
S“Three murders and a wrong ful death
are being investigated,” says Lieutenant
Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, Gauteng pro-
vincial police spokesman. “At this stage,
no foul play is suspected. It’s unclear how
the fire started.”
SJohan Schwartz declined to comment
when YOU approached him about the
death of his family. Samatha Labus-
chagne, his employer at Medley House
guesthouse in Brakpan, describes him as
a “loyal, stable and loving person” who
adored his son and “lived for his family”.
“It is very hard for him to accept they
have been wiped out,” she says.of the gate with food and gifts. I sat in my
car for three hours but no one opened
the gate for me. When I finally drove
home I felt empty.”
At 5pm that afternoon Chris got a
phone call from a neighbour of the
Schwartzes with the shocking news: San-
dra and the children were dead and the
house was on fire.
When Chris told Levina, she refused to
believe it. He must’ve misheard, she in-
sisted. They drove to Brakpan. When
they got there and saw an ambulance,
fire engine and police cars outside, the
awful truth sank in. Now Levina and her
other children have so many unan-
swered questions about the events of
that fateful day.
“Sandrawouldnever have shot her- loved them too
ABOVE: The members of the
Schwartz family who died in
the tragedy, (from left) mom
Sandra, daughters Lee-Ann
and Shereé and son Simeon.
RIGHT: The scorched remains
of the living room where the
bodies of the four were
found. Sandra’s husband,
Johan, says he came home
to a house on fire.LEFT: Johan Schwartz
outside his home where his
family died. RIGHT: The
house in Brakpan. you.co.za 22 AUGUST 2019 |^9YOU NEWS