After two years of fighting to get justice for the gruesome triple murder that took place in Wilgehof, Bloemfontein, in 2024, the perpetrator has been sentenced.

A former daycare employee, Mpheng Anna Ntsoeu, was sentenced by Judge Corné van Zyl in the Free State High Court on Thursday this week.

This comes after she was found guilty on three counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and money laundering on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old was sentenced to three life sentences for the triple murder, 15 years for robbery and 10 years for money laundering.

The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

Ntsoeu’s boyfriend and the other co-accused were found not guilty on all charges.

The sentence follows the 2024 murder of Christo Theron, his wife, Janine Theron, and his wife’s mother, Betsie Kruger, whose bodies were found on the morning of 29 June 2024 at Kruger’s home in Wilgehof.

A breakthrough leading to Ntsoeu’s arrest came in August, after the case had gone cold for a while.

Free State Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Thabang Lesia, lauded the police officials who managed to solve the case after it went cold.

“The fact that this case was handed over as a cold case with no clear leads makes the outcome even more significant. They refused to give up,” said Lesia.

He added that this was a murder that shocked the Bloemfontein community and that while no court outcome can ever undo the pain and loss the families suffered, they hope that the sentence will bring a measure of closure.

The prosecution was led by Advocate Lucky Bontes.