by Mandy Wiener
The professor wore a white lab coat, with his name and designation pinned over his chest, just above his heart. His black Bic pen etched notes onto a dozen pages held fast by a steel clamp biting down on an old clipboard. The top-right section of chipboard had seemingly been broken off some time ago.
Saayman is not only head of pathology services in the province, a position he’s held since 1998, but also head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Pretoria. A highly regarded expert in the field, he has conducted over 15 000 autopsies during his career and his process of preparation was a familiar one to him.
Also attending the postmortem was independent pathologist Dr Reggie Perumal. He would be listed as number 9 on the list of witnesses present in Saayman’s official report. Perumal regularly testifies in court cases against the state. He featured in the case of the death of former South African cricketer Tertius Bosch, the trial of socialite Rajiv Narandas accused of murder, and is on brief for the Legal Resources Centre to investigate the Marikana miners’ shooting in 2012. He was also hired by the Zimbabwean vice-president Joice Mujuru to help investigate the murder of her husband ZANU-PF heavyweight Solomon Mujuru. Perumal grew up in Chatsworth and studied medicine at the University of Durban-Westville. He worked at the district surgeon’s office before going into the private sector in 1994, at the age of 39.
Oscar’s hired expert had been dispatched from Durban at short notice on a watching brief to take notes and report back to Oldwadge and Roux. In a situation like this, the professor provides the audience with running commentary of his findings. In the event there is a major discrepancy in the findings, the pair could sort it out then and there by asking another pathologist for his or her opinion, or take tissue samples or photographic evidence to be discussed at a later stage. The parties have to come to consensus before the body is released to the family, however, because there is generally no opportunity to go back and reconduct the autopsy. It was likely that both men would be called as witnesses in a potential trial and their expert opinions weighed in opposition for the prosecution and defence.
The body bag seal was broken and the zips parted to reveal Reeva’s naked body. Beside her inside the bag were the items of clothing she had been wearing when she had died – a light-grey pair of Nike shorts and a black sleeveless top.
The shorts were unfolded and held up in front of a photographer, revealing that the right side was stained crimson red. Closer inspection of the elastic waistband revealed a very small, round hole corresponding with the wound on Reeva’s hip.
‘This appearance is not inconsistent with having been caused by a projectile from a firearm,’ said the professor, while recording his finding on the clipboard.
While Saayman constantly voiced his observations, the click of camera shutters echoed in the clinically clean autopsy room – these would be the last photos taken of the young model.
The black vest had several holes torn open on its right side and was covered with bits of human flesh and bone fragments. Found amongst the fibres and overlooked by investigators on the crime scene was a small piece of bullet shrapnel. An official handed it over to the evidence officer before it was sealed and labelled, along with the two items of clothing. The packet would be reopened several months later for the items to be photographed again but by then the blood on the shorts had dried to a dull brown.
Reeva’s body was removed from the body bag and placed on her back on a cold stainless steel table. Her once finely manicured and pampered hands had been sealed inside clear police evidence bags to preserve any evidence investigators might harvest from under her nails. Two bracelets on her left wrist bore numbers linking the body to case files and other evidence – the plastic wristband, not unlike the ones worn in hospital, had the number 48 scratched on to it in black ink, while the cable tie held in place a larger tag – DR188/13. Reeva was just a number.
Her body was still caked in blood, and had to be documented in that state before the autopsy could proceed any further. The ECG stickers above and below her breasts were still in place. Measurement rulers were held up against her and the first pictures snapped included another identity tag: 15/2/13 R STEENKAMP.
The men used their surgical gloves to manoeuvre her head into position for the cameras. Her blonde hair, the exact shade of which she had spent hours agonising over, was now red, matted together with blood and brain matter. The plastic evidence bags were removed before she was rolled onto her side to reveal wounds on her back, which was now turning purple as the blood in her body settled; only where her skin was in contact with a surface did it retain its pallor complexion. It was only then that her body was cleaned. The blood and tissue were washed off, revealing hundreds of tiny light-brown freckles on Reeva’s face. She wore no make-up, her finely plucked and sculpted eyebrows free of the fine spatter kicked up when she was struck by the bullets.
‘In the right frontoparietal area in the hairy scalp is a penetrating wound with irregular shape and irregular edges,’ muttered Saayman, jotting down his notes. He was referring to the top-right side of Reeva’s head where she had been struck by a bullet. The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear. Although her hair had been rinsed, blood still covered most of the wound. A razor was used to shave away a palm-sized section of her hair, revealing two holes through her skull – an entrance gunshot wound, and the exit wound.
The professor moved on to Reeva’s right arm. Just above the crease where the elbow bends was a small hole, identified as another gunshot entrance wound. Her arm was deformed and it was clear that the bullet struck the bone, shattering it. Around the wound was a series of small cuts. The back of Reeva’s arm presented an entirely different picture, revealing a gaping wound.
‘There is extrusion of tissue from the wound. The wound edges are irregular in areas and partially serrated and torn,’ said Saayman.
Measurement tabs were placed around the wound as photos were taken.
‘The overall appearance of these two wounds is consistent with that of exit gunshots injury probably caused by a projectile or portions thereof, together with possible secondary projectile injury including possibly bone fragments.’
The professor was writing as he was speaking.
‘Are you satisfied, Dr Perumal?’ asked Saayman.
The hired expert said he was.
The outside of Reeva’s forearm revealed many small cuts scattered over a relatively large area. ‘The appearance is not inconsistent with multiple superficial secondary projectile or shrapnel injuries.’
Saayman believed the wounds to be caused by wooden splinters, which he would describe as secondary projectiles in his report.
Saayman also documented the abrasion under Reeva’s right breast, towards her midline. Considering the bone and tissue fragments on Reeva’s black top, the professor concluded that the wound was caused by the same bullet, which passed through her elbow and, having lost a lot of its momentum, was incapable of penetrating her chest. Smaller abrasions in the area were probably caused by bone from the arm picked up as secondary projectiles.
On Reeva’s right hip was another small hole, akin to an entry wound, which was surrounded by significant discoloration and bruising. The wound lined up with the hole through the elastic of the grey casual shorts that accompanied the body.
The hip, head and arm wounds were all located on the right side of Reeva’s body. Saayman walked around the gurney to the other side to inspect damage to the soft flesh between the index and middle finger of Reeva’s left hand. While Saayman believed the injury was caused by a projectile travelling from the top of the hand towards the palm, the nature of the folds and skin creases on a human’s hand make such determination difficult.
Reeva was then rolled on to her stomach. Two small bruises were immediately visible in the middle of her back. ‘There is no perforation of the skin and the abrasions appear to overlie the bony prominences of the subjacent thoracic vertebrae,’ said the professor.
The w
ounds were typical of blunt trauma, caused by banging oneself against the corner of a chair, or being hit by a projectile that had already spent much of its energy. The only blunt object in the cubicle with Reeva when she was shot that fitted this description was the small wooden magazine rack. This suggestion would be an issue of contention between the state and defence, with the latter arguing that it was indeed the furniture that caused these marks.
With the deceased now on her stomach, a bruise on her right inner buttock was visible. An official assisting with the postmortem, wearing gloves, pushed the skin around the area, manoeuvring to establish whether a bullet could be felt under the skin. Nothing was found. But the pathologist knew what he was looking at. The bruises were adjacent to the hip wound on Reeva’s front. Had the bullet perhaps disintegrated on impact?
While Reeva’s face appeared intact, her right eye was blue and swollen, as if it had been hit with a blunt object. It was clear that this was the result of internal damage caused by the gunshot wound – in other words, not the result of direct trauma to the eye, but rather internal damage caused by the shot to the head.
A study of Reeva’s entire body revealed a number of other small bruises and scratches: a reddish discoloration of Reeva’s right nipple, a bruise on the upper part of her thigh, bruises on her shin and a small scratch on her right thumb. Saayman would suggest they were of no significance to the injuries that led to death, or that they had been caused some time prior to Reeva’s death.
The external exam was thus concluded and the team prepared to dissect the body. A study of the wounds would show that while some of the projectile that entered her head had exited Reeva’s skull, a significant portion destroyed her brain. The bone was significantly damaged. ‘There are multiple further irregular and linear cracks or fractures involving the right temporal and parietal bones.’
Cracks permeated from the site where the bullets had made holes in Reeva’s head, making their way down to the base and over the top of her skull.
Her brain was removed. ‘A deformed irregular and jagged projectile is found to be lodged within the inner table, in the base of the right occipital fossa,’ remarked Saayman.
‘This projectile has a predominantly black metal jacket with jagged sharp protrusions which partially surround and irregular lead core.’ The pathologist recognised the bullet as Black Talon ammunition. In 15 000 autopsies, the professor has seen this all too often given the high instances of gun-related crime in South Africa, where nearly 50 people are killed each day. The ammunition used in this instance explained the damage to the young woman’s body. The fragments were removed and handed over to the police as evidence.
The professor inspected Reeva’s nasal area, mouth, tongue, neck and throat and found no tissue damage, a point he recorded in his notes. Despite bruises under the right breast of the deceased, Saayman found no deep injuries to the chest and no abnormalities to the airway and oesophagus.
There was, however, haemorrhaging within the inner wall of one of the chambers of the heart, but this is commonly seen in patients who have suffered severe head trauma or sudden major blood loss. Reeva’s liver was pale – another sign of massive blood loss.
The team removed Reeva’s stomach, placing it in a stainless steel dish. It spilt its contents – a light-green soup of dark green, orange and red chunks. ‘Vegetables,’ remarked the professor. The time-of-death entry on the certificate accompanying the body noted that Reeva had died some time after 3am. Saayman believed that the partially digested food in her stomach – which he could identify – could not have been consumed more than two hours prior to her death. This finding would be crucial to the state’s case, and prompt the defence to call two expert witnesses to refute the pathologist’s conclusion in this regard; however, Perumal, who was present at the autopsy, was not one of the experts called.
A study of her bladder showed that it contained no more than a few millilitres of urine.
A dissection of the hip wound revealed major damage. ‘There is very extensive soft tissue haemorrhage and hematoma formation in the pelvic area.’
The pathologist switched to using a fluoroscope, a specially designed light used to highlight projectile particles, which revealed that the bullet had disintegrated after hitting Reeva’s hipbone. Tiny pieces, varying from 1 mm to 3 mm, littered the hip region, where it shattered the bone and tore away flesh. As a result, Saayman decided it was impractical even to attempt to collect the bits of steel from the body.
The professor concluded, instructing officials to stitch up the body. Reeva would soon be released to her family.
A Weekend in Jail
The weekend newspapers had a field day. The Saturday papers dropped with an image of Oscar covering his face in court. The picture was thought to be a violation of the court order restricting photographs being taken while the court was in session. The lens man, Antoine de Ras from The Star newspaper, had snapped the image from outside the courtroom through a porthole-like window in the door and uploaded it before he had learnt of the order. More than a year later, De Ras won Journalist of the Year in the Sikuvile Journalism Awards for his picture titled, ‘Oscar Weeps’. In his motivation for the entry, he said, ‘I shot a frame of Pistorius in the moment he stood in the dock for the very first time, overcome by emotion. My photo was legitimate and righteous. Taken before the prohibition order and indeed before the court was in session, meaning I wasn’t in danger of being in contempt.’ There was, however, frustration amongst the journalists that they could be barred from court for violating the rules. Oscar’s legal team was also considering legal action as a result of the pictures.
Oscar’s father, Henke, whom he’d snubbed a day earlier, was interviewed by the London Daily Telegraph. It was one of several reports using him as a source before the family and their PR team stepped in and silenced him.
Oscar and his father shared a tumultuous relationship and were not close. Henke said the Pistorius family had zero doubt that Oscar shot dead Reeva thinking she was an intruder.
‘When you are a sportsman, you act even more on instinct,’ he told the newspaper. ‘It’s instinct – things happen and that’s what you do.’
Controversially, he also blamed the country’s high crime rate and the ANC government for his son’s actions and to justify why the Pistorius family owned more than 55 guns.
‘Some of the guns are for hunting and some are for protection, the handguns. It speaks to the ANC government, look at white crime levels, why protection is so poor in this country, it’s an aspect of our society,’ he said. ‘You can’t rely on the police, not because they are inefficient always but because crime is so rife.’
He said he personally had never had to use a gun in self-defence, but added: ‘That doesn’t mean I haven’t been hijacked, attacked. As a family, we value life much too much to produce guns at every opportunity we can use them. I have been in positions where I can use a gun but we have been brought up in a way that we value the lives of others very highly.’
The Pistorius family swiftly issued a statement distancing Oscar from his father’s comments and the ANC was similarly quick to respond, criticising the remarks.
In the meantime, the Steenkamp family was also being asked to comment on the court proceedings and the incident.
‘We do not want to speculate about what happened,’ Reeva’s uncle Mike Steenkamp was quoted as saying to Beeld newspaper. ‘We would rather pay attention to the criminal process which will take its course now. We are a religious family. And if you believe in God, then you know justice will be in his hand,’ he said.
The gunshot-riddled door and the bloodied cricket bat featured prominently in the weekend papers. According to the City Press report, ‘a source with inside knowledge of the case’ confirmed that police were investigating three possible scenarios following the discovery of the cricket bat. The first was that Oscar used the bat to ‘viciously assault’ Reeva; the second was that Reeva used the bat to defend herself from her enrage
d lover; and the third scenario was that the bat was used to break down the toilet door, which Reeva had locked. The report also claimed that investigators had specifically requested that the athlete’s blood be tested for drugs and steroids.
Rumours were also raging amongst journalists that investigators had found steroids in Oscar’s room. A tip-off had come in that cops had found performance-enhancing drugs and syringes in a drawer in the bedroom.
The implications were huge. If this were indeed true, it would fit into the so-called roid-rage version of events being bandied about in the tabloid media: that the Blade Runner was pumped up on steroids and lost his temper. None of the rumours could be confirmed, though, and despite the pressure for a scoop, local journalists kept their distance from the rumour.
Monday morning, however, broke with a UK tabloid ‘exclusive’: ‘Steroids found at Blade Runner’s mansion – cops find bloodied cricket bat too’ was the headline in The Sun.
According to the reporter’s ‘source close to the investigation’, officers found banned steroid drugs in the athlete’s home, as well as evidence of heavy drinking before the shooting. The report further claimed that police were now investigating the possibility that ‘Pistorius may have blasted Reeva in an explosion caused by the performance-boosting steroids’ – and they were investigating whether the murder suspect was ‘in the grip of roid-rage’, a side-effect of high doses of the outlawed drugs.
More theories as to what exactly had happened that morning emerged in media reports in the days leading up to the first court appearance. The Sun suggested that Oscar had first shot Reeva in the bedroom, that she fled to the toilet where she locked herself in and was then shot a further three times: ‘Police now believe the first shot was fired at her in the master bedroom – hitting her hip as she fled to the bathroom. Wounds to the top of her head suggest that as she sat doubled up in pain on the toilet she was hit three more times by bullets that ripped through the door.’
