As another Christmas approaches, Juanita Scott continues to seek justice for her son, carrying the weight of unanswered questions and a mother’s enduring love for a life cut tragically short.
Instead of festive trimmings, sharing jokes and enjoying a braai with their favourite dessert this Christmas, the Cotswold mother is dreading another holiday without her son Henrique.
The teenager was stabbed to death outside a party venue in Slater Street, Central, in the early hours of Christmas morning 2021.
For Scott, that fateful day will forever be etched in her memory as she continues the battle for answers as the fourth anniversary of her teenage son’s brutal stabbing approaches.
“It is difficult to look at his pictures,” the mother said softly in conversation with the PE Express. “The last time I saw my son was on 24 December 2021. It was in the afternoon, around 14:00 or 15:00, and he told me that he was going out with friends.”
Her voice trembling, tears spill down her cheeks as she vividly recalls that day.
“I was ill with COVID and Henrique was looking after me for the week,” she shared. “He mentioned that he hadn’t been out for a while, so he planned to go out with friends.”
Unbeknown to the traumatised mother, as she woke up that Christmas morning, Henrique’s body was already in a government hospital mortuary.
A Christmas Day search
“On Christmas Day, a friend of Henrique called to ask how we were doing. I thought that he was referring to me having COVID,” she recalled. “But then he mentioned that Henrique was badly stabbed.”
A frantic search for her son at state hospitals, police stations and friends’ houses ensued.
“At this point, I was searching for Henrique and didn’t know where my child was.” Another two days of searching followed, with no sight or word of Henrique or the friends he went out with that night.
“On 27 December, my cousin called to say I needed to come to the police station…they wanted to know what clothes Henrique was wearing.”
Then a mother’s worst fear, that afternoon, the family learnt that Henrique’s body was at Livingstone Hospital.
“My child was basically in the morgue from 25 December up until 27 December,” an emotional Scott shared. “And the police detective at the time told me that they would find the killer before New Year’s Eve, but it’s been four years and still no answers.”
The grieving mom has many questions, but unfortunately, there have been no answers or closure.
“I don’t receive any answers from the police. So far, there had been one arrest, but the suspect was released on bail, and nothing has come of the case.”
The traumatised mom is struggling to find peace while the perpetrator is still walking free.
The PE Express repeatedly reached out to provincial police for an update on the case. Questions about whether the murder case is still open, or if any arrests had been made, went unanswered.
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