CONVICTED child killer Wendy Manthe has died.
Manthe, 44, died in Frere Hospital on Thursday morning after a suicide attempt days before.
Eastern Cape correctional services department is mum on the circumstances surrounding Manthe’s death.
However, the Saturday Dispatch has been reliably and independently informed she took an overdose of restricted tablets.
Manthe was serving a 23-year prison term for murder and theft. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the May 2009 murder of her two daughters – Morgan and Willow – on the R72 near Kayser’s Beach. Morgan, nine, and Willow, seven, were strangled to death with rope by their mother.
A further three-year jail term was added to Manthe’s sentence for stealing R51305.87 from Brands Furnishers between June and August in 2008.
During her testimony in mitigation of sentence in her murder trial, Manthe told the court she had been driven to killing her children because she feared going to jail for theft and leaving her children behind.
The murder made headlines. While in prison, Manthe wrote a tell-all book about life before the murders and the day she decided to take the lives of her children. It is not clear if the book was ever published.
Correctional services spokesman Zama Feni yesterday confirmed Manthe’s death.
“On Monday morning, during a parade session, correctional officials at the Medium C Female Correctional Centre were alerted by other female inmates that Wendy was not looking well,” Feni said.
He said upon visiting her cell, Manthe was found lying on her bed and it was then she was rushed to Frere Hospital.
“On Thursday we were informed Wendy had passed on. I don’t know anything about the offender having overdosed on pills as we have not received the postmortem results at this stage,” said Feni.
However, two senior officials within the correctional services and health departments confirmed Manthe had overdosed on pills.
“She was admitted on Monday to high care at Frere . She was stabilised on Tuesday and was then taken to the medical wards.
“On Thursday morning the patient experienced chest pains and did not inform anyone. When doctors noticed something was wrong, they tried to resuscitate her, but she died,” said the health source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A prison warder said an internal departmental probe was already under way to establish the circumstances surrounding admission to hospital and the death.
“How she got hold of the stuff she drank is what the officials are investigating.”
A former convict, who spent a year incarcerated with Manthe, said she learnt with shock about the news of her passing.
“This was not the first time Wendy tried committing suicide. She has done it before but failed. Warders even made her stop carrying medication to the cells,” said the woman.
“I spent a lot of time with her and she never made peace with what she had done, and she kept on saying ‘God will never forgive me for this’.”
Wendy’s mother, who is a resident at an old age home in East London, was too heartbroken to comment. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Child killer mom dead
CONVICTED child killer Wendy Manthe has died.
Manthe, 44, died in Frere Hospital on Thursday morning after a suicide attempt days before.
Eastern Cape correctional services department is mum on the circumstances surrounding Manthe’s death.
However, the Saturday Dispatch has been reliably and independently informed she took an overdose of restricted tablets.
Manthe was serving a 23-year prison term for murder and theft. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the May 2009 murder of her two daughters – Morgan and Willow – on the R72 near Kayser’s Beach. Morgan, nine, and Willow, seven, were strangled to death with rope by their mother.
A further three-year jail term was added to Manthe’s sentence for stealing R51305.87 from Brands Furnishers between June and August in 2008.
During her testimony in mitigation of sentence in her murder trial, Manthe told the court she had been driven to killing her children because she feared going to jail for theft and leaving her children behind.
The murder made headlines. While in prison, Manthe wrote a tell-all book about life before the murders and the day she decided to take the lives of her children. It is not clear if the book was ever published.
Correctional services spokesman Zama Feni yesterday confirmed Manthe’s death.
“On Monday morning, during a parade session, correctional officials at the Medium C Female Correctional Centre were alerted by other female inmates that Wendy was not looking well,” Feni said.
He said upon visiting her cell, Manthe was found lying on her bed and it was then she was rushed to Frere Hospital.
“On Thursday we were informed Wendy had passed on. I don’t know anything about the offender having overdosed on pills as we have not received the postmortem results at this stage,” said Feni.
However, two senior officials within the correctional services and health departments confirmed Manthe had overdosed on pills.
“She was admitted on Monday to high care at Frere . She was stabilised on Tuesday and was then taken to the medical wards.
“On Thursday morning the patient experienced chest pains and did not inform anyone. When doctors noticed something was wrong, they tried to resuscitate her, but she died,” said the health source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A prison warder said an internal departmental probe was already under way to establish the circumstances surrounding admission to hospital and the death.
“How she got hold of the stuff she drank is what the officials are investigating.”
A former convict, who spent a year incarcerated with Manthe, said she learnt with shock about the news of her passing.
“This was not the first time Wendy tried committing suicide. She has done it before but failed. Warders even made her stop carrying medication to the cells,” said the woman.
“I spent a lot of time with her and she never made peace with what she had done, and she kept on saying ‘God will never forgive me for this’.”
Wendy’s mother, who is a resident at an old age home in East London, was too heartbroken to comment. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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