Sasha-Leigh's mom reliving each day of her heartbreak
|Published
File photo: Michelle Heneke File photo: Michelle Heneke
Cape Town - Fifteen years ago, Michelle Heneke’s daughter Sasha-Leigh Crook was murdered.
Sasha-Leigh was eight years old when she was taken from her grandparents’ home in Ottery.
A week later, her body was found by a security guard in Pelican Park. She was murdered by her grandparents’ next-door neighbour.
Heneke relives her loss every year. “The 14th of July will be 15 years since the death of my eight-year-old daughter Sasha-Leigh Crook. There is nothing like losing a child, especially when they are brutally murdered at such an innocent age,” she said.
“She went missing on July 6, 2003 and she was found on July 14, 2003. She was buried on July 19, 2003 and her birthday was on July 20. Each and every year, from July 6 until July 20, I relive each and every day. I remember each day as if it was yesterday and talking about it sped up my healing process.”
When Sasha-Leigh went missing, her mother said it felt like her heart was cut into pieces. “I couldn’t breathe. I was rushed to hospital and had lockjaw. It felt someone was ripping my heart out of my body,” Heneke said.
“Your child is your flesh and your blood. It felt like my life was over, but I had to be strong for my other two children who were 10 years old and 9 months old at the time.”
During the time that Sasha-Leigh was missing, her mother said she felt helpless as she didn’t know what her child was going through.
“I wanted to feel what Sasha was feeling. I didn’t want to eat, sleep or put on a warm coat because I had no idea what my daughter was going through,” Heneke said.
“I believed that God was with her. On July 6, when she disappeared, she was at Sunday school that morning and she told her Sunday school teacher that she loved Jesus. That was a precious moment for me, knowing that my daughter loved God even though she couldn’t see him.”
When Sasha-Leigh’s body was found, Heneke said she thanked God for giving her closure. But it didn’t stop her from feeling angry.
“I was angry to think that someone could take a life of an innocent child. A child who was loving, friendly and caring and didn’t deserve to die the way she did,” she said.
“When she was found, I was summoned to the morgue to view a body of a girl they had just found.
“My brother Gary Heneke and I went to view the body along with the police, and I will never forget the image of how her face was covered with a towel, her hands covered with brown paper, and she was dressed in the tracksuit I had bought her to wear for the party that she was to attend on the day she went missing.
“I saw her hair and immediately I knew it was my child.”
Heneke said she asked police to remove her shoes so she could identify scars on her left foot.
“I saw the scars and I screamed. The thought of seeing her lifeless body is unbearable, my heart was sore and aching,” she said. “I was not able to view her face because she was stabbed in her jugular vein and stray dogs devoured her face. That was my baby.”
Her only coping mechanism was to pray and ask God to heal and help her understand why her child was killed.
“Sharing her memories keeps me alive each and every day. I miss her very much. The pain is always there, but it is only by God’s grace and mercy that I make it through each and every day of my life. God lent his little angel to me and fetched her again to be with Him,” Heneke said.
But forgiveness also helped her heal. “I forgave the person who killed my daughter and I pray that he would have the heart to say sorry for what he had done,” she said.
“Drugs and alcohol abuse are common causes for the things these substance abusers do, and they are not aware of the hurt and pain they cause their own families, not to mention the pain and suffering the victim’s families go through.”
But Heneke feels that Sasha-Leigh could have been found alive if more was done by the police.
Also, she said that children should feel free to play outside, but instead they are growing up in a world with fear and overprotective parents.
“Our children should not feel scared to walk to the shop, stand in their driveways, walk in the malls, but they are,” Heneke added.
“Earth was created to be a second Heaven to live on; instead, people are making it hell on Earth. Our children aren’t safe anymore.”