For two years, a grieving Nelson Mandela Bay mother was led to believe her daughter had taken her own life, leaving behind her one-year-old child for the family to take care of.
But on Women’s Day, the police finally made a breakthrough in the 2021 case.
Though no-one wants to hear that a loved one was murdered, the family of 24-year-old Janine Scott, haunted by why she would want to end her own life, heaved a sigh of relief when it turned out to not be so.
Scott’s boyfriend, Earl Billet, 25, was arrested on Wednesday last week in connection with her murder.
After appearing in the New Brighton magistrate’s court the next day, he was released on bail of R2,000.
According to the charge sheet, Scott was strangled with a belt.
At the time, Billet told investigators that he had returned home to find the mother of his young child hanging in their modest Algoa Park flat, and that he had immediately cut her loose.
But after he appeared in court on August 11, it emerged that police now believe Scott was murdered.
Loss, grief and mourning are part of the Scott family’s daily life.
Her mother, Madelene, 61, said she had been plagued by the question of why her daughter would want to kill herself.
“I couldn’t sleep at night, thinking about what was possibly going on in her mind at the time,” a sobbing Madelene said from her Windvogel home this week.
But knowing that Billet had now been charged with the murder provided some sort of comfort, she said.
He has not yet formally pleaded to the charge.
“It confirms what we initially thought had [allegedly] happened.”
Scott’s body was found in the Silveroak Street flat she rented with Billet on January 24 2021.
The flat is just a stone’s throw from where Jacqueline “Jackie” Leander, 49, died in a frenzied knife attack recently, allegedly at the hands of her partner, Gianon Lloyd, 31, who then took his own life.
Tanya Pienaar, a resident at Scott and Billet’s Suidenwind block of flats, said Billet had told her at the time that his girlfriend had hanged herself.
“He appeared to show no emotion and just said she had taken her own life,” Pienaar said.
“I immediately ran down, knocking on people’s doors to get help ... we then ran straight to their flat, and there she was, dead.”
She described Billet as someone who always kept to himself, while Scott was the polar opposite.
“Janine was friendly.
“She bought a microwave from me days before the incident.
“She was so happy they had their own little place and wanted to build a home for her little family.”
Pienaar said on the morning of the incident, she had heard Scott and Billet fighting.
“She was hysterical,” Pienaar said.
“He left for work and she stayed behind, crying.
“She told me she suspected he was having an affair as he [apparently] had a love bite on his back.
“That same evening, he came down to tell me she had killed herself.”
Pienaar said Janine had adored her baby.
“She loved that child so much and would always boast about her.”
Madelene said: “Janine couldn’t have more children, so she lived for that baby.
“My grandchild was her everything — she looks a lot like her mother, especially the eyes.”
Scott’s older sister, Liezel, said she missed the close bond she had with her “baby sis”.
“I loved her very much, and I miss all the things we used to do together as a family,” Liezel said.
“We always spent time together, doing our makeup and hair, smiling, laughing and making fun of each other.”
She said she just wanted to spend another Christmas with her sister.
“It’s been two Christmases without her and we miss her dearly.
“She was a [ray] of sunshine, a real bundle of joy and very smart too.”
Madelene said she had many questions about what had happened.
Reliving the moment when she arrived on the scene that fateful day, Liezel said there had been a mop on the floor with a rope tied to it.
Scott was lying on the floor. There were no signs of a rope around her neck.
“I could see that she had taken a bath shortly before her death.
“I know my sister, her skin was soft and warm,” she said.
Liezel said they were now yearning for justice.
“I didn’t want him to get bail — he [allegedly] lied to our faces for two years.”
Madelene said that the last thing her daughter had told her was that her life was in danger.
Scott’s eldest sister, Melissa Scott-Roman, said her heart was in pieces.
“I feel depressed. I suspected this from the start, but no-one listened to me,” Scott-Roman said.
“She was not a person who was suicidal.
“When the detective told us they believed she was in fact murdered, I was relieved but sad at the same time.”
Scott-Roman said that after Scott was involved in a taxi crash, she had been told she would not be able to have more children.
Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu confirmed Billet’s arrest for murder.
“On January 24 2021, at about 10pm, Billet alleged that he had received a message from his girlfriend, Janine, that he should take care of their child,” Naidu said.
“Billet further alleged that he rushed home and found her hanging from the door frame.
“Initially, an inquest docket was opened for investigation.
“However, due to the meticulous investigation, police succeeded in closing any suspicions and discrepancies in the case, and the case of inquest was changed to murder.
“This led to the subsequent arrest of Billet.”
He is expected back in court on August 30.
‘My son is not a killer’
The mother of the young Algoa Park man accused of murdering his girlfriend and then making it look like a suicide is adamant that he is not a killer.
Elize Billet said if Janine Scott, 24, was murdered and had not taken her own life, as initially thought, then the police had the wrong man.
She was speaking to the Weekend Post after her son’s release on bail of R2,000 last week.
Billet said her son, Earl, 25, would not harm a fly, let alone murder the love of his life and mother of his daughter.
“He is a caring and gentle soul,” Billet said on Thursday from her Algoa Park home, which overlooks the flat her son and Scott had shared.
“He would never hurt another person. My son is not a killer,” she said.
Repeated attempts to contact Earl telephonically for comment were unsuccessful.
Billet told a reporter who visited the house that her son was at work.
Earl was arrested on Women’s Day, two years after the body of his long-time girlfriend and mother of their then one-year-old daughter was found at their Algoa Park flat.
“He loved Janine with his whole heart. There’s nothing he wouldn’t have done for her,” Billet said.
“Earl is a breadwinner and has a very big heart.”
She said he lived for his daughter.
“Everything he does, including the air he breathes, is for his daughter.
“That child would not survive without him,” she said.
“Police have the wrong man ... he is very co-operative.
“Tell me, would someone that is guilty do something like that?
“Both Earl and I are devastated by the loss of Janine.
“If she was indeed murdered, then police must arrest the right suspect and justice should prevail — but it was definitely not my son.”
Billet said Earl was a highly respected member of the community.
“He is always there for those in need,” she said.
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