For a few days, former Ladysmith accountant Ahmed Dawood Seedat lived a normal life with his two children aged two and five, who were blissfully unaware their mother was buried in the backyard.
It was only when the father of his British-born wife, Fahima Yusuf, raised the alarm that police investigated.
They dug a hole on the side of the home‚ not far from where the children’s toys were kept, and in a shallow grave found the wife’s body in a shallow grave of their Perth home in western Australia.
A wheel spanner‚ the alleged murder weapon‚ was recovered from a bin at the home.
Via a video link from his prison cell, the former South African admitted this week to bludgeoning his wife and the mother of his two children to death.
Seedat, 36, who was charged with murder in September last year, admitted to the Stirling Gardens Magistrates’ Court in Perth on Wednesday that he had committed murder on August 31.
The court told Times Select Seedat had pleaded guilty to one count of murder.
“I can confirm that Ahmed Seedat appeared in the Stirling Gardens Magistrates’ Court in Perth, western Australia, on January 30.
“He pleaded guilty to one count of murder and was remanded in custody to the Supreme Court on May 8 ...
“It is standard practice that the accused appear via video link for some matters. He will have to enter his plea in the supreme court,” a court spokesperson said.
The couple’s two children, according to Australian media, were attending school and “carrying on with life as normal”.
On Wednesday, defence lawyer Jonathan Davies requested a psychological report be compiled on Seedat, reportedly telling the court there had been “complex matters in the background of the relationship”.
The report will be prepared ahead of sentencing in May.
Australian media also reported Seedat faced unrelated charges for allegedly fleecing some of his clients of more than AUS$6m.
He is alleged to have stolen money from more than 20 people, which they had deposited into accounts linked to him to invest on their behalf.
Clients reported their concerns about missing funds to police after Seedat was charged with Yusuf’s murder.
A distant cousin from Ladysmith said at the time of his arrest that Seedat had left the town after finishing school. He later emigrated.
Australians were outraged by Yusuf’s murder.
Women’s rights organisations, in particular, condemned the killing.
Impact, a women’s NGO, said after Yusuf’s murder, she had become the 51st woman to be killed violently in Australia last year...