D-Day in Jason Rohde murder trial

Jason Rohde, accused of murdering his wife, will hear his fate in the Western Cape High Court at 10am today. Yesterday afternoon, according to TimesLIVE, Advocate Graham van der Spuy painted a picture of a shattered man who was not capable of violence. He pointed to testimonies that had unfolded in the lengthy trial in which it was stated: ‘The accused most certainly does not have the profile of somebody who resorts to violence to resolve a conflict. He is non-confrontational.’ As for his wife Susan, whose death at the luxury Spier Wine Estate sent shock waves across the country in July 2016, Van der Spuy said there are three theories which explained what happened – all of which include Susan taking her own life. ‘My submission is that the deceased died at her own hand and that the evidence overwhelmingly supports that,’ he said, adding she may have ‘consciously committed suicide’ when she went into the bathroom and possibly thought to herself, ‘this is it, I can’t take it anymore; I have lost the battle’. Another explanation he gave was that she wished to ‘simulate a suicide as a cry for help’ but that it went ‘miserably wrong’. ‘It is amazing how quickly unconsciousness occurs after a ligature is applied to the neck – it happens within seconds,’ he said. His third theory was that Susan Rohde was engaged in an experiment of sorts – an attempt to see what it took to commit suicide – but didn’t plan on dying that day. ‘It could have been a simulated experiment but before she knew it, the dye was cast,’ he said. He argued the state’s allegation that Rohde murdered his wife in the bedroom and then transported her to the bathroom to create a fake suicide was not possible when no DNA was found to corroborate that, and no carpet fibres were found on her body.