Life and brutal death in the 1960s

In the sweltering heat of January 1966, as churches across South Africa prayed for rain, a brutal murder was unfolding in the mining town of Odendaalsrus in the northern Free State.

On January 10, the day before the new school year, the Nel household was buzzing with excitement. Catch a Falling Star was playing on the radio as Poppie, 6, danced with her cousins Petronella Nel, 12, and Magrieta Fourie, 13.

The Fouries had just moved back to South Africa after living in Zambia for several years. Magrieta, her brother André and their mother Maria went shopping for their new school uniforms. When they returned Magrieta, Petronella and André went to the municipal swimming pool. André later left the pool.  

By nightfall the two girls hadn’t returned home and a frantic search began. Family and friends scoured the town, their worry growing as the hours stretched on. At 2am, the nightmare became real — the girls’ bloodied bodies were found in an abandoned pay office of the Freddies gold mine, 3km outside town. Their hands and feet were bound with electrical wire. They had been raped, mutilated and shot in the head.

Eighty policemen and tracker dogs joined the hunt to find the killer but the truth of what happened to the girls seemed to die the day they did.

Magrieta’s brother André, however, refused to let that be the end of the story. At the double funeral, when his sister’s coffin was lowered into the grave, the 16-year-old dropped his tear-soaked handkerchief onto it and made a vow: “I swear, sister, I will get them.”

It took him 18 years to fulfil that promise. 

Gunshots and screams

Newspaper articles from the time state police detained several suspects, including a man in a Cape Town nightclub on January 15 1966, and two other men two days later. Witnesses near the abandoned office at the mine reported hearing gunshots and screams. Detectives scrambled for clues, questioning at least 10 young men. In Durban, they linked an unpaid hotel bill to a possible getaway car. A 32-year-old man was detained for questioning, but the case remained unsolved. 

By late January 1966, media reports revealed the police had turned their attention to a 24-year-old, who was arrested in Durban. His family in Bloemfontein faced public harassment, and police issued a call for information about a stolen firearm. Despite psychological examinations and further inquiries, the investigation stalled. A mysterious letter from a Bloemfontein resident, signed “van ’n moeder” (from a mother), raised hopes in April 1966, but the author never came forward. Without concrete evidence, the case went cold, leaving the families of the girls without answers.

This thing haunted me for such a long time and, I thought about it so often

—  Family member Willem van der Merwe

In March 1984 there was a breakthrough. André — then an officer in the Newcastle detective unit — provided crucial information that led to the arrest of two men in Pretoria. One had already confessed. After nearly two decades, the truth about what happened that night in 1966 was finally uncovered.

In August 1984, Johan Theron was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Theron confessed that when he was 15, he and his brother Barend, then 18, committed the crime. Barend, who killed himself in 1976, is believed to have been the one who shot the cousins.    

Now, nearly six decades later, the story is being brought to television in the new drama series Niggies (Cousins) — thanks to Willem van der Merwe, son of Poppie Nel.

He first became aware of the tragedy in 1984, at the age of five, when the case was finally solved. Sitting on his mother’s lap, he watched his family appear on the evening news, walking down the courthouse steps.

Over the years, his curiosity grew. He questioned his mother and relatives, piecing together details, convinced the story needed to be told more widely. But life moved on, until a dinner conversation reignited his interest. What started as a potential podcast quickly became something bigger.

“It’s something that I needed to just do. This thing haunted me for such a long time and, I thought about it so often,” said Van der Merwe.

He sought his mother’s permission, knowing the pain it could stir. But as they uncovered more, it became clear: this wasn’t just a family tragedy; it was a story the world needed to see. A proposal was pitched, and KykNet greenlit the project — finally bringing Petronella and Magrieta’s story to light in a limited drama series set to premier later this month. 

“I realised that all the people that were so directly involved, especially the parents of the cousins, had already passed on. André passed on in 2010. The timing made sense because the direct family who were traumatised were not going to have to relive everything,” he said.

With the help of Van Der Merwe’s extensive research director Jaco Bouwer, executive producer Roelof Storm and writers Saartjie Botha and Philip Rademeyer have crafted a series that incorporates some fictional “creative licence” to revisit the crime and the quest for justice. 

Throughout the research process, Van der Merwe found himself piecing together a complex puzzle — merging oral history with documented facts from media reports, police investigations and court records. Balancing the vivid, often emotional family retellings with carefully crafted fiction was a delicate and sometimes surreal process.

For his mother, Poppie, the story was intensely personal. She and Petro were more than family — they were best friends. She fondly remembers countless sleepovers at Petro’s house in Odendaalsrus.

Visiting the set and watching the first few episodes with her son was an emotional experience for Poppie, who is now 65.

“My mother cried a lot and there was this long group hug after watching it together, because I have been so intricately involved... but what was a big relief to me was to see that it wasn’t retraumatising. It was cathartic. By no means is this going to be easy to watch because it is a painful story, but I think that everyone was aware that there is catharsis in speaking about events like this and the impact on the family,” Van der Merwe said.

Fear, suspicion and trauma became part of the lives of the affected families and the town. In the 1960s houses didn’t have fences or walls, but after the double murder Poppie, her siblings and the other kids were made to sleep in their parents’ bedrooms. Doors were always locked, and parents became overprotective, not allowing the girls to be out after dark.

Generational trauma

“The biggest impact initially was absolute horror and fear that set in. Generational trauma existed in a big way, especially in all the girls’ lives, they were all petrified. They weren’t allowed to go out in the dark and this was the case for everyone in the community, because it was such a small town,” Van der Merwe said.

Bouwer said he was drawn to the drama based on the script and the difficult subject matter.

The extensive research material provided the blueprint but Bouwer, together with the cast, still needed to breathe life into the characters. Set during the height of apartheid, the series focuses on universal themes of loss and the notion that the truth can be stranger than fiction.

“I felt a huge responsibility to do it right especially in this current day and age. To tap into too much of the politics of that time would have distracted from this particular story, so politics became more of a backdrop.

“I tried to stay within the facts and the specifics of that era and to approach it respectfully. Because it’s a period drama it’s a time stamp of that period. For some people there might be a nostalgic feeling when they watch something from the past. It’s also an opportunity to see where we are now and how far we’ve come,” Bouwer said.

As Niggies prepares to make its debut, it carries with it more than just the weight of a decades-old crime — it holds the memories of a family forever changed, a town left in fear, and a brother who refused to let go of the investigation. Niggies honours the lives of Petronella and Magrieta but also asks its audience to remember, to reckon, and to heal.

• Niggies starts March 25 at 8pm on KykNet (DStv channel 144) and will also be available on DStv Stream and Catch Up.