On that fateful day, it was Kennealy’s mother, Kim Labuschagne, who also lives on a farm in the region, who sounded the alarm. The pair had been exchanging WhatsApp messages first thing on Monday (20 May) but by the middle of the day she noticed that her daughter was no longer looking at the messages. By the afternoon she was so concerned that she contacted Kennealy’s daughters, Meghan and Astrid, both based in Stellenbosch, some 1,100 miles away. They tried to call their mother that evening but got no response.

The following morning Meghan called her father and asked him to drive up to the farm. ‘I asked my dad if she had messaged on the Farm Security group. She hadn’t,’ Meghan said. ‘She was usually very good at keeping in touch, especially as things were getting dangerous up there.’

Kennealy’s neighbour and friend Theodorus ‘Doors’ LeRoux was also alerted and made the 30-minute drive up the mountain to the farmhouse ahead of Martin. ‘Doors phoned me as I was driving up to say that Annette had been killed,’ said Martin. ‘When I arrived at the house, Doors came out and stopped me. He said I should not go inside. He was so shocked at what he saw, and he was right – I don’t think I could have coped.’ Later that day the police arrested Ramatshimbila in nearby Mauluma, where he had a small house. They broke down the front door and took him back to the crime scene. Slowly, over the hours that followed, the story of a ferocious struggle emerged.