The plot sickens: Mom haunted by son’s death after similarities in Spinners
|Published
FLATS SERIES: Spinners
A mother of three says the similarities between Showmax series Spinners and the circumstances around her own son’s death is freaking her out.
Yolande Grimwood from Goodwood says when the first episode aired in November, it opened wounds and renewed questions about the murder of her son Ryan Theunis, 33, who was shot in the head on 8 January 2022.
In the action series, the character Ethan (actor Cantona James) is a 17-year-old boy from Lavender Hill who befriends an older skollie named Damian, who uses him as a driver for the gang’s criminal activities.
Ethan then ropes in his Down syndrome friend Percy, who is used by the gang to shoot his own brother, a rival skollie, but ends up getting killed too.
Yolande, 55, says: “It’s just so strange how the story is so similar to what happened to Ryan – an innocent boy who loves to help people and is always kind, ending up in this situation that gets him in trouble and hurt.
“Also, Ethan’s dad was a spinner, and so was Ryan’s, Ethan loved cars and so did Ryan, Ethan met older men who led him into the wrong things and so did Ryan.
“Someone knows what happened that day Ryan was killed and doesn’t want to tell. I have so many questions as to why he was killed, I can barely sleep at night because of this.”
Yolande says in November of 2021, Ryan, who lived in Tafelsig at the time, met a 60-year-old man named Noordien, explaining: “He called me the next day to tell me about it, all excited, because the old man gave him a R100. I didn’t think anything of it.”
In December 2021, Ryan moved to Thornton where he met another elderly man, coincidentally also named Damian.
A month later, Ryan was shot in a gang-related incident in Woodstock.
Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg says two suspects, were arrested for the shooting.
Yolande says a few hours before his death, Ryan had called his aunt, who knew Damian, to say that he was in danger and needed help.
She adds: “[Ryan] was not gang-related, but it came to light afterwards [Damian] was gang-related.
“His aunt told him not to go with them that Friday evening before the shooting, but he informed her that the old man’s wife instructed my son to ‘oog for the old man’, meaning protecting the old man, and that’s why he went with that night.”
She says Ryan was part of a group of six who were at the informal settlement in Bromwell Street, Woodstock when the shooting occurred.
According to Woodstock SAPS, Ryan was killed while a 60-year-old man was seriously wounded and taken to hospital.
Yolande says this man turned out to be Noordien, explaining: “Noordien was shot in the head thrice but he survived. Up until today, Noordien refuses to tell me what exactly happened that day.”
Spinners co-writer Matthew Jankes was shocked by the “crazy coincidence” between Ryan’s life and their series, saying: “We had already completed the writing of Spinners by the end of 2020, so it’s a crazy coincidence that there exists such a strong parallel with a real-life story.”
“But it goes to show the struggles of young men trying to escape the clutches of gang life is far too common.”