A three-year-old Durbanville twin who died in hospital after apparently falling on her bicycle brake lever, was actually shot in the heart with a pellet gun.
This shocking discovery was made during the autopsy of the toddler at Tygerberg Mortuary.
Reliable sources indicated that all avenues of investigation led back to the child’s Durbanville home.
The identity of the alleged shooter is known to the Weekend Argus, but cannot be revealed as the suspect is a minor.
The child has not yet been charged.
It’s understood that the suspect knew how to load and fire the pellet gun and had used it in bird hunts with another family member.
Sources say a family member provided Durbanville detectives with a plausible explanation of the shooting as well as a drawing of the shooting scene.
This satisfied the state pathologist, sources said, as well as ballistic experts who investigated the crime scene.
The fatal pellet was not recovered during the autopsy as it had been sucked out of child’s heart during doctors frantic attempts to save her life at Mediclinic Durbanville hospital on Sunday, 17 February.
The child was rushed to hospital by her mother who informed doctors she had found her daughter slumped over her bicycle handlebars with a small puncture wound to her chest that she thought had been made by the brake lever.
The child had been riding her bike inside the house with her twin, who was on roller skates.
A family lawyer said the family was too traumatised to talk to the media.
Police spokesman, Andrè Traut, said he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.