If you enjoyed ’Devilsdorp’ and ’Strangers You Know’, you will most probably be tuning into Showmax’s latest true-life crime documentary, ’Last Blue Ride: The Hannah Cornelius Story’.
IF YOU enjoyed “Devilsdorp” and “Strangers You Know”, you will most probably be tuning into Showmax’s latest true-life crime documentary, “Last Blue Ride: The Hannah Cornelius Story”.
It revisits the horrifying night in 2017, when the Stellenbosch students, 21-year-old Hannah Cornelius and her friend Cheslin Marsh, were kidnapped by four criminals belonging to the notorious “Numbers” gang.
Seated in her grandmother’s VW City Golf, the two friends were ambushed by Vernon Witbooi, Geraldo Parsons, Eben Van Niekerk and Nashville Julius.
There were taken on11-hour hell-ride.
During that time, the brazen criminals tried to withdraw cash from Marsh’s account to obtain drugs.
While a terrified Cornelius was seated in the passenger seat of the car, which was picked up by CCTV cameras in the area, Marsh was forced into the boot of the car.
The documentary includes recreated scenarios and is narrated by director and journalist Anthony Molyneaux, who admitted: “I have covered dozens of brutal crimes and their court cases, but the murder of Cornelius affected me the most”.
There are several individuals who are interviewed, one is a close friend of the family who gives insight into the kind of person Cornelius was as well as what the family went through when they found out that she had been brutally murdered and killed.
And a still visibly traumatised Marsh, who was brutally beaten and left for dead, revisited what transpired on that fateful night.
There is also input by a former gang member, who explained the code of the ‘Numbers’ gang, how the ranking works and how their world in prison works.
Although Marsh survived the attack, he was left with a hearing impairment and now lives with a hearing aid.
In the court footage shared, the perpetrators showed no remorse for what they had done. After sentencing, one or two of them offered a forced and insincere apology to the family.
What really tugs at the heart is how the death of Cornelius destroyed this once happy family. Months later, her distraught mother went for a swim and never returned.
Her father, struggling to cope with losing two family members, testified on how his autistic son and he are a shadow of the family they used to be.
As the family member pointed out, in a country where femicide is rampant, this wasn’t an exceptional case. It simply received more public attention.
But the outcry is shared by everyone who has been through a similar tragic situation.
‘Last Blue Ride: The Hannah Cornelius Story’ is streaming on Showmax.
