The body of Reeva Steenkamp has arrived home after she was shot dead inside Oscar Pistorius' house.
BANNED steroids were reportedly found in Oscar Pistorius' home after the death of model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
South African police are now investigating whether the famed ‘Blade Runner’ athletics superstar was overcome with aggression, or ‘roid rage’, a side effect of the banned drugs, The Sun reports.
Blood samples taken from Pistorius are now being tested for steroid traces.
The star Olympian and Paralympian was charged on Friday with the Valentine's Day murder of 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp who was shot dead at his luxury Pretoria home in a case that has gripped the world.
Cops also reportedly found a bloody bat and evidence of heavy drinking at the Pistorius’ Pretoria home where Steenkamp was shot dead.
Cops are reportedly testing Oscar Pistorius' blood for traces of steroids after finding banned drugs in his home after the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
His family has strongly denied he intentionally killed his girlfriend and the sprinter is due to appear in court on Tuesday at a bail hearing.
Pistorius, who remains in custody in a red-brick, one-story police station in Pretoria, is set to return to court Tuesday for the start of his bail hearing. It will be the first opportunity for the prosecution to describe evidence police gathered against the 26-year-old double-amputee runner and the reasons why he was charged with murder. Prosecutors allege the killing was premeditated.
Pistorius' family denies he committed murder though they have not addressed whether he shot her. When word first emerged about the killing there was speculation in the local media that Steenkamp had been mistaken for an intruder in Pistorius' home. Police have said that was not something they were considering.
In an email to The Associated Press on Monday, Pistorius' longtime track coach - who was yet to comment - said he believes the killing was an accident.
Oscar Pistorius weeps as he faces court charged with the murder of his girlfriend. Picture: AP
"I pray that we can all, in time, come through this challenging situation following the accident and I am looking forward to the day I can get my boy back on the track," Ampie Louw wrote in his statement.
"I am still in shock following the heart-breaking events that occurred last week and my thoughts and prayers are with both of the families involved."
Earlier, South African media reported that Pistorius nearly shot a friend at an upmarket restaurant recently when the pistol he was looking at accidentally went off.
The incident occurred less than a month before the star athlete was charged with murder after his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead at his upscale home in the early hours of Valentine's Day.
Oscar Pistorius posing last month with girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, whom he is accused of shooting dead at his home.
Pistorius was looking at a friend's gun at a restaurant in Johannesburg when the firearm discharged accidentally, Kevin Lerena told the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper on Monday.
"I had quite a fright, because the bullet hit the ground centimetres (inches) from my foot," said Lerena, a professional boxer, who described the incident as "a freak accident".
"For some reason, it got caught on his trousers, flipped the safety pin and a shot went off. I wouldn't say he was negligent. Days afterwards he was still apologising."
"The revolver belonged to one of his friends... he wanted to have a look at it."
Oscar Pistorius' lawyer Kenny Oldwage, left, and brother Carl Pistorius arrive at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, South Africa on Sunday.
The restaurant manager heard a loud bang, but Oscar and his friends denied anything had happened, he told the newspaper.
Police also found a bloodied cricket bat at the home of Oscar Pistorius, a local newspaper reported.
Pistorius's family denies he intentionally killed the blonde covergirl, with his father telling a newspaper he had "zero doubt" his son had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder and his 89-year old grandmother saying the killing was accidental.
The family has said the 26-year-old, who is being held until a bail hearing on Tuesday, is "numb with shock as well as grief" over Steenkamp's death.
South African athletics star Oscar Pistorius runs to gold in the final of the 100m at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
It comes as South Africa's independent City Press newspaper quoted police sources close to the investigation saying that the cricket bat had been found and that Steenkamp's skull had been "crushed".
"There was lots of blood on the bat," one source said.
Police are investigating whether the bat was used to assault Steenkamp, who was shot four times in the early hours of Thursday, or if she may have used it to defend herself, the newspaper said.
The law student turned magazine model had been shot in the head, hip, arm and hand.
"The suspicion is that the first shot, in the bedroom, hit her in the hip. She then ran and hid herself in the toilet... He fired three more shots," a police source told City Press.
Pistorius - and later paramedics - struggled in vain to save Miss Steenkamp’s life.
As they did, police found the bloodied cricket bat in the athlete’s bedroom, the paper said.
Authorities have rejected suggestions that Pistorius mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and yesterday police spokesman Neville Malila refused to comment on the reports of the cricket bat.
"I don't know where they got it from, but they didn't get it from any official source in the police," Mr Malila said.
Meanwhile, Nike says it has no plans for the Olympic athlete in future ad campaigns.
Nike spokesman KeJuan Wilkins confirmed the shoe company's plans to The Associated Press on Monday. He declined to say whether Nike had previously had any plans for Pistorius, or whether it will pull current advertising that includes him.
A Nike Internet ad showing Pistorius starting to sprint in his blades with the caption: "I am the bullet in the chamber" has already been pulled.
The family of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend wants answers, her mother told a Johannesburg newspaper, as South Africans braced to hear why prosecutors believe a national hero murdered the model who was shot multiple times.
June Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp's mother, told The Times in a front page interview published Monday: "Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?"
"Just like that she is gone," the newspaper quoted her as saying in what it described as an emotional telephone interview.
"In the blink of an eye and a single breath, the most beautiful person who ever lived is no longer here."
While Pistorius goes to court, Steenkamp's funeral will also be held Tuesday in her hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southern coast, her family said. It is to be a private ceremony at a local crematorium, closed to the public and media.
"We're just taking things one day at a time," Reeva Steenkamp's brother Adam Steenkamp said outside the family home.
"But at the moment it's family coming together and the one person who would be the strongest, who held us all together, is unfortunately not here anymore - and that's my sister."
A 29-year-old blonde model, law graduate and reality TV contestant, Reeva Steenkamp died last week of multiple gunshot wounds inside Pistorius' upscale house in a gated community in the eastern suburbs of the capital, Pretoria.
Police said they arrived in the predawn hours of Thursday - Valentine's Day - to find paramedics trying to revive Steenkamp and said that she had been shot four times. A 9 mm pistol was recovered from the scene. Pistorius was arrested and charged with murder the same day.
Prosecutors said in Pistorius' first court appearance Friday that they would pursue a more serious premeditated murder charge against the Olympian and world's most high-profile disabled athlete.
In a statement initially given only to the AP and two South African reporters over the weekend, Arnold Pistorius, Oscar's uncle, said the prosecution's own case would show there was no murder.
"We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation," he said, "and that the state's own case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of a premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all."
The bail hearing, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, will be the first time both the prosecutors and defence will show their hands about the evidence involved in the killing, said Stephen Tuson, an adjunct law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
"There will kind of be a little trial within a trial," Mr Tuson said of the start of a court case that will likely grip South Africa and much of the world - possibly for years.
Due to the gravity of the charges, Pistorius' defence lawyers will present their case first, trying to argue that their client is not a danger to the public and won't try to flee to avoid trial, Mr Tuson said. They'll also have to show that he won't try to intimidate witnesses, nor pose a risk of sparking public unrest, the professor said.
The defence does have the opportunity to put Pistorius - who broke down and wept in his first appearance in court - on the stand to offer testimony on his own behalf. That likely won't happen, as prosecutors would then be allowed to ask him potentially incriminating questions, Mr Tuson said.
Typically, defence lawyers read a prepared statement in court instead.
From there, prosecutors will offer their own version of events, likely bolstered by testimony from the lead investigator in the killing, Mr Tuson said.
Pistorius has been in custody in Brooklyn police station in Pretoria since Friday. His agent told the AP that there is no way to predict if he will ever run track again.
"For me it's too early to comment," Peet Van Zyl said. "I think it's still a huge shock and tragedy that took the world by surprise so I can't comment on that one (Pistorius' future career) or give any timeline to that at this point in time."
Coach Louw, who is significant for convincing Pistorius to take up track a decade ago and starting him on his journey to worldwide fame, said he had been around Pistorius and Steenkamp, and she often accompanied the athlete to training.
"I found her to be delightful, very friendly ... and I found the two of them to be very happy in each other's company," Louw said.
