Sunday, March 04, 2007

Hamba Kahle Bob

I went cold on reading this, flesh all goosebumps. Not the ideal accompaniment for a Sunday morning croissant.

The
Witness reported on Saturday.

RICHMOND resident Bob Downs lived through a hundred years only to be stabbed to death in his bed by a gang of burglars. Yesterday morning the small midlands town was still reeling over the senseless murder of Herbert James “Bob” Downs, a 100-year-old builder and woodworker who was killed on Thursday night. His domestic worker stumbled on his cold body in his bed when she reported for duty yesterday at 8 am at 109 Russell Street, where Downs lived for 72 years. Initial police investigations established that Downs died after he was stabbed with a sharp object in the chest.

For some time a dozen or so years ago we were neighbours of the energetic "Old Man Downs", at 106 Russell Street. Despite the fact that the police have swiftly arrested a suspect, this is devastating.

Is someone really close to me (my family) next?

3 comments:

Third World Ant said...

That's a terrible question I've been asking myself a lot lately - I've developed a bit of paranoia about it. At some point, you have to live your life without fear and accept your risks, or move to a place where you no longer feel so afraid (although you can't take everyone you care about with you, so you're left to worry about them)...

ATW said...

Positive on one hand , paranoid on the other. Mighty tough and confusing being the body stuck between the 2 hands.

Vallypee said...

How absolutely terrible! This even touches me over here in Holland as the name of Bob Downs is very familiar to me, having lived in Richmond myself for a year. I worked for the estate agents in Richmond and I'm quite certain he was an occasional visitor. What a sad piece of news.

Finding a place where you can live without any kind of fear is not that easy though, folks. One of our community here in Rotterdam was found drowned beside his boat last Tuesday morning. All I can say is that the police are investigating as they are not completely convinced it was an accident.

As for theft and muggings.......five stolen bicycles, three stolen mobile phones, two stolen passports, three stolen credit cards, and one fraudulent withdrawal from my bank account later...well, I think that speaks for itself.