The Western Cape High Court was set to hear the murder case against Jacques Pretorius, a former Absa executive, on October 5, 2026. However, in a surprising turn of events, the State withdrew all charges against him, bringing the trial to an abrupt end. Sheri-Ann Pretorius's body was found at their Somerset West home on November 20, 2021, and her death was initially treated as a suspected suicide. Further investigation led police to conclude that she had been murdered, and the scene had been staged.
The murder case against Jacques Pretorius was launched on March 11, 2025, after he was arrested and charged with premeditated murder and defeating the ends of justice. He pleaded not guilty and was granted R5,000 bail. The withdrawal of charges has left Sheri-Ann's family, particularly her father, Steven Jacobs, feeling disheartened. They had been waiting for almost five years to see the case against the man accused of killing Sheri-Ann tested in court.
The next step in the process will be to place the matter before a magistrate for an inquest, which will examine the circumstances surrounding Sheri-Ann's death. This process is similar to the one taken in the case of Anele Tembe, who died after falling from the 10th floor of Cape Town's Pepperclub Hotel on April 11, 2021. The inquest aims to establish the circumstances around Sheri-Ann's death, which remains unclear.
The defence team, led by advocate Pieter Botha SC, has consistently maintained that the postmortem and scene evidence are consistent with suicide by partial hanging rather than homicidal strangulation. The State pathologist's findings did not conclude that Sheri-Ann had been manually or otherwise homicidally strangled, but rather recorded blunt trauma to the neck with no fractures of the relevant structures.
The defence also pointed to evidence in the police docket, including three alleged farewell letters handed to a domestic worker the day before Sheri-Ann's death, WhatsApp messages in which Jacques Pretorius allegedly reported that she had threatened suicide, and evidence that the bedroom door was locked from the inside. These findings, combined with toxicology results, supported the defence's claim that Sheri-Ann's death was a suicide.
The withdrawal of charges has raised questions about the timing and reasons behind the State's decision. According to information given to Action Society by Sheri-Ann's father, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told him that the State pathologist was no longer prepared to testify that strangulation was the cause of death and was unwilling to testify against the defence's expert. This forensic dispute was at the heart of the murder case.
Action Society has called for an urgent review of the case, and Sheri-Ann's father has expressed his disappointment and frustration with the outcome. He feels that the withdrawal of charges has delayed justice for his daughter and that the family will have to wait another five years for an inquest to be finalised. The family plans to obtain the police docket to further understand the circumstances surrounding Sheri-Ann's death.
Key points
- The murder charges against Jacques Pretorius were withdrawn due to a forensic dispute between the State pathologist and the defence's expert.
- An inquest will be held to examine the circumstances surrounding Sheri-Ann's death.
- The family has expressed disappointment and frustration with the outcome, feeling that justice has been delayed.
