{"id":370600,"date":"2026-08-09T16:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/370600\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T16:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:36:20","slug":"she-did-not-pass-peacefully-brother-of-st-stithians-teen-speaks-out-after-mpumalanga-lodge-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/370600\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She did not pass peacefully\u2019: Brother of St Stithians teen speaks out after Mpumalanga lodge death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The brother of 17-year-old St Stithians Girls\u2019 College learner Cameron Waldeck-Cooks has broken his silence following her death at a lodge in Sabie, Mpumalanga.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cameron and former St Stithians Boys\u2019 College learner Ethan Coetzee, 19, were found dead in a lodge room on Monday, August 3.<\/p>\n

According to Mpumalanga South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo, police were alerted to a complaint about two people who had died at the lodge.<\/p>\n

Officers found the bodies of a 19-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl. Both were declared dead at the scene.<\/a><\/p>\n

Police initially opened an inquest docket.<\/p>\n

However, Masondo said the results of post-mortems indicated that Cameron had allegedly been strangled, while Coetzee allegedly took his own life.<\/p>\n

Cameron\u2019s brother speaks out<\/p>\n

In a social media post, Cameron\u2019s brother, also named Ethan, said his sister did not die peacefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer corpse lay lifeless; with injuries in several parts of her body. She did not pass peacefully<\/a>,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He also spoke about his relationship with Coetzee, saying the teenager had always treated him with kindness and respect and had positively influenced his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to me, all his virtuous deeds mean nothing now. My sister was only 17-years-old, and her life was taken away from her. I know my sister and what she stands for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ethan also criticised what he described as insensitive headlines about his sister.<\/p>\n

He said seeing Cameron\u2019s photograph alongside Coetzee\u2019s was difficult to accept.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe trauma he caused her and my family will not be forgotten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He thanked those who had shown kindness and support to his family following Cameron\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Police investigation continues<\/p>\n

SAPS has confirmed that investigations into the deaths are continuing.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The brother of 17-year-old St Stithians Girls\u2019 College learner Cameron Waldeck-Cooks has broken his silence following her death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[6464,177257,175206,175207,177256,175203,7255,4913,176463,64967,5383,131,177259,177258],"class_list":["post-370600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-brother","tag-brother-of-st-stithians","tag-cameron","tag-cameron-waldeck-cooks","tag-ethan","tag-ethan-coetzee","tag-mavela-masondo","tag-mpumalanga","tag-mpumalanga-south-african-police-service","tag-sabie","tag-saps","tag-south-africa","tag-st-stithians-boys","tag-st-stithians-girls"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117066529760783404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}