Cape Town son recounts trauma of identifying his dismembered mother

On Friday, 22 May, two months after the murder, 55-year-old Menno Rose, the son of murdered pensioner Constance Scholtz, spoke to Daily Maverick about the trauma that left an indelible mark, and the long, emotional road to recovery he still faces.

What has made the tragedy even more devastating for the family is that the person accused of the murder is his own aunt, 63-year-old Aletta Rose.

“Letta, as I call her, is seven years older than me. We literally grew up and lived in one house together in the 1970s until I was 13 years old, when we moved to Bellville South. For 13 years, Aunt Letta fetched me at the creche. She was like the cool aunt, it was like she was my sister, that’s how we grew up,” he said.

The decapitated body of Connie was found on Thursday, 19 March, on her bedroom floor in her Bellville South home. Her sister was arrested and charged with murder on that same evening.

She has since made at least three court appearances, and at her last appearance in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, 21 May, made unsatisfactory remarks about the magistrate and the legal aid lawyer.

Discovering a headless and dismembered body

After police arrived at the house on that fateful day, officers forced open the bedroom door with a shovel while Menno sat anxiously outside, fearing the worst. Inside, they discovered a body covered with linen and called him in to make the identification, words he says still echo in his mind.

“There is somebody inside there and we want you to come identify them,” the police told him.

“They took me into the room. I didn’t even realise my wife had walked in behind me and was standing at the doorway,” Menno recalled.

Officers instructed him to uncover the body.

“I mustered the courage to lift the blanket from one side and then the other. As I opened it, I saw my mother’s chest and breasts. She was naked, but there was no head. Then I saw her arms had no hands.”

The overwhelming horror of the moment caused him to collapse. Led back to the lounge by officers, he broke down in uncontrollable grief.

“There was disbelief, despair and confusion. In my mind, I knew it was my mother, but I still did not want to accept that it was really her lying there.”

Menno recalled kneeling beside the body before collapsing into the arms of police officers standing behind him. Amid the immediate shock and trauma, he said he did not fully comprehend that his mother had been decapitated.

It was only later, during memorial gatherings a day later, that the full horror of what he had witnessed truly began to sink in, when church members told him the news about his mother’s decapitation had gone viral.

Mortuary viewing brought measure of closure

On Sunday, 22 March, his trip to the mortuary was one of anxiety, dread and unanswered questions. In the days leading up to the formal identification, he feared what condition his mother’s face would be in after hearing speculation about the injuries she had suffered.

“There was speculation that she had blows to her face, and while driving to the morgue, I kept wondering what my mother’s face would look like.”

When he arrived, he was relieved to see that the mortuary staff had done everything possible to reconstruct her body and restore a measure of dignity before the family saw her.

“Luckily, the body had been redone and reconstructed as best they could before being presented to us,” Menno said.

Although he could still see signs of the postmortem reconstruction, most of the severe injuries had been covered. He said his mother’s body had largely been concealed beneath blankets.

“I did not see my mother’s body or hands. The blanket was basically pulled up to her chin, and the other areas were closed off. I could see my mother’s jawbone was bruised.

“Her head had been reattached to the body. I could also see marks from the blows on the side of her head, although I could not see the back of the head,” he told Daily Maverick.

Despite the emotional weight of the moment, he says he somehow found the strength to complete the identification.

“I could not stomach it, but at the same time I could… it was not so overwhelming that I could not identify my mom.”

And then the full reality of her death finally settled over him.

“That was the moment I realised my mom was truly gone, because for the first time I had seen her face,” Menno said.

Fifteen minutes of silence before the horror unfolded

At around 8pm on the evening of 19 March, Menno received a troubling phone call from his mother-in-law, Marguerite van der Merwe, 89, informing him that something seemed unusual at his mother’s Bellville South home. The windows and curtains, normally shut by 4pm — were still wide open.

When Menno and his wife, Rochelle, arrived, anxious family members and neighbours had already gathered outside. Using his key, he unlocked the gate and repeatedly knocked on the front door, but there was no response.

For nearly 15 agonising minutes, they shouted and called out for “Auntie Connie”, but were met by silence.

Neighbours then alerted them that the windows at the back of the house were also open. On peering inside, they allegedly noticed his aunt Aletta Rose, the woman now accused of the murder, inside the house.

After she eventually opened the door, Menno and Rochelle entered and immediately sensed that something was wrong. The house was dark, cigarette butts littered the passage and his aunt was allegedly dressed in one of his mother’s nightgowns. They also saw a hammer lying in the kitchen.

According to Menno, the aunt allegedly claimed that a family member from Robertson had fetched his mother and that she would return the next day. But alarm bells rang when he discovered his mother’s bedroom door was locked.

“My mother never locked bedroom doors. Nobody in that house did.”

He went outside and was told by neighbours and family members that Constance and her sister Aletta were seen out together on 18 March 2026, and returned carrying shopping bags.

Desperate for answers, Menno confronted his aunt again before kicking a hole in the locked bedroom door before family members restrained him.

Moments later, children standing on refuse bins peered through the bedroom window and shouted that something was lying beneath a brown blanket on the floor. Police were immediately called to the scene.

Accused requests Afrikaans-speaking lawyer

During her appearance in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 19 May, the accused told the court she wanted an Afrikaans-speaking Legal Aid representative.

But two days later, on Thursday, 21 May, court proceedings took a dramatic turn when she allegedly levelled racist remarks against the magistrate during an outburst.

Following the disruption, the matter was postponed to Thursday, 28 May, for a referral for mental evaluation. DM