Reeva Steenkamp sent her defacto family a text message hours before she died saying she was too tired to drive hom from Oscar Pistorius's house and would stay the night. Source: AP
- Reeva was too tired to drive home the night she was shot
- Her 'Joburg dad', Cecil Myers, had to identify body
- 'Can you imagine how terrified she was?'
- Oscar's private memorial for Reeva
REEVA Steenkamp never intended to stay the night at Oscar Pistorius's house the night she was shot dead but changed her mind because it was too late to drive home safely.
In her final text message, she told the man who thought of her as his own daughter: "Hi guys, I’m too tired. It’s too far to drive. I’m sleeping at Oscar’s tonight. See you tomorrow."
Five hours later she was dead, shot three times as she sat in the bathroom of Pistorius's Pretoria home.
The Olympic sprinter is out on bail awaiting trial for Steenkamp's murder.
The prosecution says he shot her in a jealous rage. Pistorius claims he mistook the 29-year-old model for an intruder.
Cecil Myers is the father of one of Reeva's best friends, Gina. He was Reeva’s "Joburg dad" while she was living in the city - she had been staying with the family since September - and had known her for more than six years.
In his first interview, Mr Myers told South Africa's City Press newspaper he was one of the last people to communicate with Reeva the night she died.
A relative of Reeva Steenkamp holds the order of service for her funeral in Port Elizabeth. The model is being farewelled as Oscar Pistorius, who has been charged with her murder, faces a bail hearing.
It was late on Wednesday night, just hours before her death.
"I’ve got this thing with all three (Reeva, and his daughters, Kim and Gina), if they don’t come home at night, they must text me. Then Reeva sent the (SMS) message: ‘Hi guys, I’m too tired. It’s too far to drive. I’m sleeping at Oscar’s tonight. See you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow never dawned for her ... I have nightmares at night thinking how frightened she must have been. Can you imagine how terrified she was?
"That was the last SMS from her phone, probably about ten, ten thirty – the time they usually SMS."
Early in the morning they got the news. “Gina was hysterical. She started screaming in her room: ‘Reeva is dead!’"
Haunting: the last image of Reeva Steenkamp, shown on CCTV arriving at Oscar Pistorius's house the night she died. Photo: Carte Blanche
Reeva's parents live 1100km away in Port Elizabeth. It was Mr Myers who identified Reeva's body.
"Luckily my son was there for me, because I broke down. The way she looked ... that will remain with me forever," he told the paper.
"It was terrible, I couldn’t drive myself back home."
Mr Myers said he met Reeva’s father Barry, a horse trainer, for the first time at her funeral in Port Elizabeth last Tuesday.
"Her father introduced me to friends as ‘Reeva’s Joburg father’,” Mr Myers said. “He kept thanking me for being so kind to his daughter in Johannesburg, for looking after her.
"But how well did I look after her? She was shot."
Oscar Pistorius posing last month with girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, whom he is accused of shooting dead at his home. Picture: AFP
Prosecutors are keen to track Steenkamp's final moments using her mobile phone.
They hope her phone records, as well as the location tracker, will shed some light onto her movements on Valentine's Day night.
The information though could take some time to be released, as it has to be approved by a magistrate or high court judge.
Earlier Mr Myers' daughter Gina described a ''perfect day'' she spent with her friend last week and praised the model’s sense of humour and love of life.
“Last week, Reeva and I took a blanket into our garden. Lay there for the day and decided it was something we’d do all the time. It was a perfect day,’’ said Ms Myers.
Ms Myers said she had a nickname for her friend, ‘Alfi’, so-called because of the little pieces of hair that would stick up by her forehead.
Meanwhile, Reeva's mother has told of the moment police came to tell her of her daughter's death.
June Steenkamp told South African TV show Carte Blanche: "I had a phone call about half past seven that morning and the man said to me: 'What's your name?' And I said: 'It's June'.
"He said: 'Do you have a daughter?' And I said: 'Yes'.
"He said: 'Reeva? 'And I said: 'Yes'.
"He said: 'There's been an accident and she's been shot'.
"I said: 'All I want to know is if she is alive or if she's dead'.
"The man said: 'I'm sorry to have to tell you, but I don't want you to go up and read in the paper, that she's dead'."
Barry Steenkamp said Pistorius will suffer for any lies he has told about the shooting.
"There are only two people who really know what happened and it's Oscar Pistorius and the Lord," he told Afrikaans-language newspaper Beeld in his first extended interview.
"It does not matter how much money he has and how good his legal team is, he must live with his conscience if he allows his legal team to lie on his behalf.
"But if he speaks the truth, I can perhaps some day forgive him.
"If it did not happen as he has told it, he must suffer.
"And he will suffer ... only he knows."
