Shockwaves rippled through Durban this week at the news that a father had broken into his estranged lover’s hideaway on a secure Mount Edgecombe estate and gunned her down before taking his own life in full view of the couple’s toddler daughter.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
Clint Walley was financially ruined and, despaired of ever seeing his daughter again if her mother, Catherine Krog, was successful in a bid to gain sole custody of Isabella, 3, the tormented man had reached the end of his endurance.
Krog and Walley had been embroiled in a vicious tug-of-war for Isabella, while her maternal grandmother, Charmaine Wheatley, had simultaneously filed for sole custody of her granddaughter, citing both parents as “incompetent” to raise her.
In January Isabella’s face was plastered on internet sites here and abroad when a desperate Walley went on the run with his child.
After an extensive manhunt involving both the police and private investigators, the child was tracked down in Kimberley and reunited with her mother.
Walley was imprisoned, but later released on bail. Both private investigator Brad Nathanson, who has gained a reputation for fast, effective crime-solving, and the police, made failed attempts to persuade the magistrate to deny bail.
Walley was due to appear in court on Friday to face charges of defying a court order when he abducted Isabella, and for an earlier incident, when he reportedly pointed a gun at Krog.
Walley had no contact with his firstborn daughter, who lives in London with his former wife, Melanie Forrester, who was awarded sole custody. Forrester and Walley’s marriage ended amid lurid allegations of abuse and kidnapping, in a scenario hauntingly similar.
Walley had sunk so low in recent weeks that he had been sleeping in public parks.
At around 1.30 on Thursday morning, Krog posted a note on her website, telling Facebook contacts that she was enjoying an impromptu picnic on her bed with her little daughter.
At 4.45am Walley e-mailed a copy of a suicide note to a journalist at sister title The Sunday Tribune from his Blackberry, titled “Isabella is free”.
It read: “No more Owen Kemp; drugs, thugs and threats. No more cage fighting, swearing, being beaten or left with strangers. No more drug attacks, drug dealers or strippers. No more lying, cheating or stealing. No more Lt Cl Booysen to cover Catherine’s despicable behaviour. No more being left in locked cars. Fly my little girl fly. You are free.”
According to a range of sources, Krog had been involved with a multi-millionaire property developer, who had often bailed her out of financial difficulties.
The revelation was fuel to the fire raging in Walley’s troubled psyche.
Walley then evaded security guards on the estate as he made for the complex where Krog was sheltering with the couple’s daughter. She believed she was temporarily safe from Walley; her whereabouts known to only her closest friends.
Walley propped the ladder up against a high wall supporting the electrified fence surrounding the estate.
Once he reached the top, there was no safe way to descend. Attempting to land on his feet, he smashed into the paving at the foot of a slope supporting the fence, and snapped his ankle.
With a broken bone protruding through his skin, the injured man tried to fashion a makeshift tourniquet with a strip torn from his shirt. He then dragged himself towards his quarry, leaving smears of blood for 500m along an immaculate bricked access drive. More blood was spilled as he sought entry to the townhouse.
The police have not confirmed whether a door or window had been left open, but Walley managed to gain access to the cottage, where he scrawled “Isabella is Free.Ti amo (I love you). Papa” on an inside wall, before entering Krog’s bedroom and shooting her several times, and then ending his own life.
The first people on the scene found little Isabella sitting on the bed near her parents’ bodies. – Sunday Argus
