Oscar Pistorius at his court hearing in Pretoria Friday. (AP)
JOHANNESBURG — A devastated June Steenkamp, mother of slain model Reeva Steenkamp, is demanding answers as mystery shrouds the Valentine’s Day shooting horror.
Mrs. Steenkamp was quoted by the Times newspaper in South Africa in a front page interview Monday asking: “Why my little girl? … Why did he do this?”
She wept as she spoke of her pain after Oscar Pistorius allegedly killed her daughter, who she described as “the most beautiful person who ever lived.”
She says of her late daughter, a model, law graduate and Pistorius’ girlfriend, “she loved like no one else could love” and “she had so much of herself to give and now all of it is gone. Just like that, she is gone.”
“All we have is this horrendous death to deal with, to get to grips with.
“All we want are answers, answers as to why this had to happen, why our beautiful daughter had to die like this.”
Mrs. Steenkamp said her daughter was “so proud of being a South African”, adding: “She loved this country and all its people. This was the only place she called home.”
Reeva will be buried near her home in Port Elizabeth tomorrow following an “intimate” family funeral.
Double-amputee athlete Pistorius, an icon in South Africa and a star of last year’s Olympics, remains in custody in a Pretoria police station charged with Steenkamp’s murder after she was shot multiple times inside his home. He is set to return to court Tuesday for the start of his bail hearing. That hearing will be the first opportunity for the prosecution to describe evidence police gathered against the 26-year-old double-amputee runner and the reasons why he was charged with murder.
Steenkamp, a blonde model, law graduate and reality TV contestant, died last week of multiple gunshot wounds.
A bombshell report revealed cops found banned steroids inside Pistorius’ home and believe the Olympic track star may have killed his girlfriend in a boozy, ’roid rage.
The search also turned up a blood-covered cricket bat.
Investigators said Pistorius might have smashed Steenkamp’s skull with the bat before shooting her to death in the horrifying, pre-dawn Valentine’s Day attack.
“Steroid drugs were found at Pistorius’ home together with evidence of heavy drinking,” a source close to the investigation told The Sun of London.
“Police have specifically ordered that he be tested for steroids,” the source said of the 26-year-old double-amputee track star.
Police said they arrived in the predawn hours of Thursday to find paramedics trying to revive Steenkamp. Police said she had been shot four times. A 9 mm pistol was recovered from the scene and Pistorius was arrested and charged with murder the same day.
Prosecutors said in Pistorius’ first court appearance Friday that they would pursue a more serious pre-mediated murder charge against the Olympian and world’s most high-profile disabled athlete.
In a statement initially given only to The Associated Press and two South African reporters over the weekend, Arnold Pistorius, Oscar’s uncle, said the prosecution’s own case would show there was no murder.
“We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation,” Pistorius’ uncle said, “and that the state’s own case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of a premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all.”
The bail hearing, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, will be the first time both the prosecutors and defense will show their hands about the evidence involved in the killing, said Stephen Tuson, an adjunct law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
“There will kind of be a little trial within a trial,” Tuson said.
Due to the gravity of the charges, Pistorius’ defense lawyers will present their case first, trying to argue that their client is not a danger to the public and won’t try to flee to avoid trial, Tuson said. They’ll also have to show that he won’t try to intimidate witnesses, nor pose a risk of sparking public unrest, the professor said.
The defense does have the opportunity to put Pistorius — who broke down and wept in his first appearance in court — on the stand to offer testimony on his own behalf. That likely won’t happen, as prosecutors would then be allowed to ask him potentially incriminating questions, Tuson said.
Typically, defense lawyers read a prepared statement in court instead.
From there, prosecutors will offer their own version of events, likely bolstered by testimony from the lead investigator in the killing, Tuson said.
Pistorius’ agent told the AP that there is no way to predict if he will ever run track again.
“For me it’s too early to comment,” Peet Van Zyl said. “I think it’s still a huge shock and tragedy that took the world by surprise so I can’t comment on that one (Pistorius’ future career) or give any timeline to that at this point in time.”
With AP and The Sun.