‘Facebook Stabber’ hands himself in

Port Elizabeth – A man who has been on the run after his estranged wife was stabbed repeatedly, has turned himself in, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.

Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said Martin Stevens handed himself in shortly after 11:00, accompanied by his lawyer.

Stevens had called police hours before, asking that he be given until Monday morning to turn himself in at Mount Road police station in Port Elizabeth.

He faces a charge of attempted murder after his estranged wife, Anna-Marie, was stabbed several times last week.

Stevens had previously been acquitted for killing his first wife in the early 2000s after the judge declared him mentally unfit.

Stevens will appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning.

Anna-Marie was attacked in her vehicle as she was arriving at a friend’s house.

“As the friend was trying to open the gate, the suspect [allegedly] jumped into the car and proceeded to stab her with a blunt object multiple times,” said Janse van Rensburg.

A few hours later, Stevens posted an apology to his wife on Facebook, saying he did not want to hurt her and urged her to tell the truth.

Stevens wrote in Afrikaans: “Just tell my wife I love her very much. Did not want to hurt her. But all the stuff she accused me of, none of it is true. It was like a cancer eating at me please take care of Ruwayne and Martin [believed to be his sons].

“Sorry my wife, I came tonight just to talk to you. Love you lots. Just tell the truth please my wife. I was really not guilty. You always got only the best from me. Why did you really leave me? Again another man? Why couldn’t you do it in the right way if you wanted to leave me. I ask again, why all the lies?

“You know you hurt yourself on the boat. No, now I strangled you and jumped on your chest. Tell everyone now why you did that. What I’m going to do now I’m not doing because I am guilty. I’m doing it because of the pain I have been walking with for three months. You threw me away like a bag of rotten potatoes.”

According to Anna-Marie’s sister, Marthie Michau, the couple was in the process of getting a divorce after she had accused him of strangling her months before.

Lizeka Tandwa, News24