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Reeva Steenkamp’s Parents “Unmoved” By Apology

Reeva Steenkamp, the model who was shot and killed by Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius on Valentine’s Day of last year, was unsure about her relationship with Pistorius according to her parents. ...
Reeva Steenkamp’s Parents “Unmoved” By Apology
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Reeva Steenkamp, the model who was shot and killed by Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius on Valentine’s Day of last year, was unsure about her relationship with Pistorius according to her parents.

    Pistorius recently received a five-year sentence for the murder as well as a three-year suspended sentence on a weapons charge. The double-amputee, who competed in the Paralympics as well and was nicknamed “Blade Runner” for his high-tech prosthetics, admitted that he shot Steenkamp four times through the bathroom door of his home thinking she was an intruder. However, neighbors said during the trial that they’d heard shouting coming from the home that night, leading to accusations in court that he intentionally killed his girlfriend. Pistorius owned several guns and had for years, according to those who knew him, because of his fears regarding his safety while at home in South Africa. But Steenkamp’s parents say the athlete was “trigger-happy” and “volatile” and that Reeva was unsure about where their relationship was headed.

    “She had confided to me that she hadn’t slept with him. They’d shared a bed, but she was scared to take the relationship to that level … She wouldn’t want to sleep with Oscar if she wasn’t sure,” June Steenkamp said. “I believe their relationship was coming to an end. In her heart of hearts, she didn’t think it was making either of them happy.”

    June Steenkamp has written a book about the murder and trial called Reeva: A Mother’s Story in which she talks about Pistorius’ apology to her and husband Barry and says she felt it was staged.

    “It was an extraordinary moment. You could cut the atmosphere in the courtroom with a knife: silence, but for the sound of journalists tapping on their screens. It put me in an awkward position….Why decide to say sorry to me in a televised trial in front of the whole world? I was unmoved by his apology. I felt if I appeared to be sorry for him at this stage of his trial on the charge of premeditated murder, it would in the eyes of others lessen the awfulness of what he had done. He was in the box trying to save his own skin after he had killed my daughter and I was sitting in that courtroom wanting to hear the factual truth,” she wrote.

    Pistorius claims he heard a noise in the middle of the night and, because it was dark in his bedroom, he didn’t realize Reeva wasn’t in bed. He grabbed a gun and fired through the closed bathroom door four times, but didn’t know until it was too late that his girlfriend was inside.

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