By STEPHEN BEVAN and ANGELLA JOHNSON

Last updated at 11:15 08 January 2008

When the young Charlize Theron heard her alcoholic father shouting and swearing at her mother outside their home, she barely bothered to listen. His rants were, after all, not unusual.

But seconds later her father Charles lay dead after her mother Gerda blasted him four times with a gun.

Oscar winner Charlize has always maintained that her mother acted in self defence after her husband had threatened to kill them both with a shotgun.

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But a new book, Killer Women: Fatal South African Females, casts doubt on what really happened 16 years ago at the family's home in the Western Cape.

The Hollywood star, just 15 at the time, has refused to talk publicly about the traumatic event, except to say that Gerda was a victim of domestic abuse.

Charles, they told police, was violent and aggressive.

Now, in the book by South African crime writer Chris Karsten, Charlize's aunt Elsa Malan insists her "mildmannered" brother would never have attacked his wife or adored daughter.

But she stops short of saying that Charles was murdered.

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Charlize, 31, whose latest movie, In The Valley Of Elah, opens this month, is said to be furious that members of her father's family have broken years of silence to talk about the killing.

The book also reveals how Charlize's police statement "went missing" soon after she won a Best Actress Oscar in 2004 for her role in the film Monster, as a prostitute who became a serial killer.

It has now resurfaced after investigations by Karsten.

Elsa knows she may pay a heavy price for trying to clear her brother's name. She and her 77-year-old mother Bettie say that Gerda has threatened them with legal action if they speak out.

"I don't care about that any more," said Elsa last night.

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"We want to set the record straight. All those perceptions that Charles was some kind of a monster-at home were very hurtful to our family and everyone who knew him. He was a dedicated family man. His wife and daughter were the most important things in his life."

She recalls a "benign and mild-mannered man" who "could never lift his hand in anger to anyone. Gerda, on the other hand, was more of an introvert.

"She could be testy and grumpy and never hesitated to speak her mind.

"Charles always knew when he overstepped the mark with her and then he would meekly try to patch things up.

"As for his so-called alcoholism, we all know that he loved his drink but I never saw him drunk."

Elsa concedes there was considerable friction between Charles and his wife.

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"Their marriage had been rocky for years. I remember asking Gerda at church, shortly before the shooting, why she hadn't opted for a divorce rather than live in an unhappy marriage.

"She said she couldn't do it for Charlize's sake."

It was the ambitious Gerda who pushed her beautiful daughter into modelling, setting her on the road to Hollywood. They remain very close.

In her account of the shooting, the young Charlize told detectives she heard her father swearing and shouting at her mother to let him into the house.

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Her statement reads: "My father said he would kill us with his shotgun. My mom said she was afraid that he really would kill us.

"The next moment I heard a number of shots being fired. I don't know how many, and then I heard my mom screaming hysterically.

"When I went into the passage, I saw my father's brother, Danie Theron.

"My mother was sitting in a corner of the bedroom crying and she said, 'Charlize, I've shot them. I've shot them.' I can only state that my mother had not had any alcohol at any stage. She was sober."

Gerda told police her drunk and aggressive husband had threatened to shoot her and Charlize.

"I simply started firing at him. I don't know how many times. I saw him fall. When I turned around I saw his brother behind me and instinctively I fired another shot in his direction. His brother fell down."

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Elsa was the first person to arrive at the bloody scene, where she found Charles lying on his stomach.

His glasses were broken and he was still breathing. Gerda stood in the kitchen in her nightdress. Charlize was weeping under a blanket.

Danie, who had fled the house after suffering a hand wound, would later claim Gerda had shot Charles in the back as he lay on the floor.

The official cause of death was "bleeding due to gunshot wounds to upper body and arm".

No charges were ever brought against Gerda.

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But for Elsa, several critical questions have yet to be answered.

"If Charles was on his way to get the shotgun in the gun safe in their main bedroom, as Gerda claimed, why was his body found next to the bed near the entrance to their en suite bathroom? He was walking past the safe towards the bathroom when he was shot," she said.

"Also, when his clothes were returned to me after the autopsy, I discovered the keys to the safe in his pockets. Would he not have had the keys in his hand if he'd planned to retrieve the shotgun?"

She said that although the family was angry that Gerda was never charged with the shooting, they had not pushed for the case to be reopened because of Charlize.

"Gerda killed my eldest brother and wounded another brother, and she walked free. We would have liked some kind of justice, but we were very worried about Charlize.

"She lost a father at 15 and we were thinking she shouldn't lose a mother as well. She had been through a lot of trauma at that young age."

Indeed for many years the actress, who went to live in America when she was 17, claimed that her father had died in a car accident.

When news of the shooting dramatically broke three years ago, Charlize initially said he had been physically violent when drunk but later claimed that he had only ever been verbally abusive.

Yet even this has been disputed by the Theron family's frail matriarch, Bettie, who is slowly losing her battle against cancer.

In her statement to police at the time, she said her son "had always been Gerda's subordinate and described her daughter-in-law as "hot-tempered", "outspoken" and even accusing her of being violent towards Charles.

"My son was never, as far as I know, violent towards her. She, on the other hand, was very violent towards him," said Bettie.

The family also dispute Charlize's claim that he left them bankrupt, pointing out that the business he and Gerda built up together, leasing earth- moving machinery, was highly successful.

"She [Gerda] and Charlize inherited millions from Charles," said Bettie.

Bettie, who has not seen Charlize for more than a decade, holds no grudge against her granddaughter.

"I dream that we will be together again after all these years," she said.

"She is still my little girl. It doesn't matter to me whether she is famous or completely unknown. She is my last link with Charles."

Bettie has written several letters to Charlize but has never had a reply.

"Things were never the same after that dark night. I still mourn my son's death and I grieve for my famous granddaughter who refuses to know me," she said.

"Charles worshipped Charlize but since the shooting she has never had a good word for him. Gerda always treated our family as white trash.

"She had nothing but bad things to say about my son. She really turned that poor child against me."

Elsa said her mother never got over the double blow of her son's death and losing contact with her granddaughter.

"Grandma Bettie takes it very hard that her famous grandchild wants nothing to do with her," she said.

Killer Women: Fatal South African Females, by Chris Karsten, is published by Human & Rousseau.