Alison Botha Survives Rape, Disembowelment, Near Decapitation

Miracle is a word often associated with Alison Botha’s story. Alison’s life almost ended in 1994 after Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger stabbed her multiple times in the neck and abdomen. 

 

Botha’s harrowing ordeal started when one of her attackers forced himself into her car, ordered her into the back seat, and drove off to pick up his accomplice. 

 

Alison Botha was taken by Frans and Kruger to a remote location in Port Elizabeth, where they subjected her to rape. In a gruesome attempt to end her life, they tried to strangle her, but their efforts were unsuccessful. 

 

Despite being left to die with multiple stab wounds, Alison's determination to survive, coupled with some stroke of luck, enabled her to pull through.

 

Alison’s attackers stabbed her 54 times in the neck and abdomen

 

Alison Botha and her friends had a pleasant evening before things took a terrifying turn. Upon arriving at her apartment and parking her car, Alison was confronted by an attacker wielding a knife who demanded, "Move over, or I'll kill you," in a chillingly calm voice.

 

After stopping Alison Botha and demanding her car, the man assured her that he only required it for an hour. 

 

He drove to a different part of Port Elizabeth to meet up with Kruger, and together they traveled to a remote area outside the city. It was there that they revealed their twisted plan to sexually assault Botha.

 

A terrified Botha chose not to resist rape. In her book I Have Life and film Alison, Botha detailed how her body responded to the rape. To guard against pain, her body involuntarily responded as if it were aroused. 

 

According to The Sunday Times, a significant number of rape victims react similarly to Alison Botha, but often choose not to discuss it because of the unwarranted stigma they face. Alison herself revealed that she may have omitted this detail if not for the involvement of her co-author.

 

 

“I was so nervous about saying that. If I’d written the book on my own I probably would have brushed over it, but Marianne [Thamm, co-writer of I Have Life] made me see how important it was, and I have lost count of the number of women who have come to thank me for saying it.”

 

Following the sexual assault, Kruger and du Toit attempted to suffocate Alison, but their efforts were unsuccessful. In their anger, they proceeded to brutally stab her 37 times in the stomach. It's possible that they would have left Alison to die if not for the involuntary twitch of her leg.

 

In a final, desperate attempt to take Alison's life, Kruger and du Toit inflicted 17 additional stab wounds to her neck. Alison later recounted her ordeal to IOL, discussing the horrifying details of the attack.

“All I could see was an arm moving about my face. Left and right and left and right. His movements were making a sound. A wet sound, it was the sound of my flesh being slashed open. 

 

He was cutting my throat with the knife. Again and again and again. It felt unreal but it wasn’t. I felt no pain, but it was not a dream. This was happening.”

 

Botha used all her strength to get to a nearby highway, where she received help

 

When one of her attackers declared, "No one can survive that," they were proven wrong as Alison managed to cling onto life. After the brutal assault, Kruger and du Toit left her for dead, and in that moment, Alison believed that she might not make it. However, she resolved to leave a trace of evidence, so she wrote their names in the sand, along with the message, "I love Mom."

 

With an unwavering will to survive, Alison Botha made the courageous decision to crawl towards the headlights she had spotted shining through the bushes. As she attempted to move, she struggled to hold her intestines in place, which were close to falling out of her abdomen. However, she managed to improvise by using a denim shirt she found nearby to keep them in place.

 

 

“It was time to move,” Alison said. “I crawled, struggling through dirt and broken glass, my one hand holding the shirt. With each successive movement I became increasingly tired. At some point I collapsed onto the sand, exhausted.” 

 

Crawling proved too slow for Alison, so she decided to walk. After getting up, her head fell onto her back – the attackers had sliced so extensively, they’d nearly decapitated Alison. Botha walked with one hand supporting her intestines and the other her head. 

 

“I pulled my head forward with my free hand and my vision returned, at least temporarily,” Botha explained. “As I struggled forward my sight faded in and out and I fell many times but managed to get up again until I finally reached the road.”

 

Tiaan Eilerd, a veterinary student, stopped to help the struggling Alison. He kept her conscious long enough for paramedics to arrive. Dr. Alexander Angelov later stated that in his sixteen years as a doctor, he’d never seen such severe injuries. 

 

Alison’s surgery lasted three hours, and after three weeks, she left the hospital. She remembered everything about the attack, helping authorities arrest du Toit and Kruger. 

 

The Ripper Rapists were tried and convicted in The Noordhoek Ripper Trial, one of the most high-profile cases in South Africa. Judge Chris Jansen sentenced the pair to life in prison. 

 

Botha survived because none of the 54 knife thrusts nicked a main artery. Therefore, she did not bleed to death and kept breathing through her severed trachea. 

 

Alison’s purpose is to spread hope through her miraculous survival

Alison ditched her career as an insurance broker to tour the world speaking about her ordeal. Botha has spoken in more than thirty countries about her system of dealing with trauma. Her purpose is to spread hope through her survival story. 

 

“Believing that I could live the night of my attack and seeing the miraculous result of that belief is also a great life achievement for me. The personal e-mails and notes that I receive from people whose lives have been ‘saved’ because they heard or read my story has to be the most rewarding and valuable achievement – they make it all worth the while.”

 

Uga Carlini resolved to make a documentary about Alison’s ordeal after hearing her speak in 1999. “She speaks right into your heart and you feel like you’ve known her all your life,” Uga told The Sunday Times. 

 

Carlini said that Alison’s story resonated with so many people because of its uplifting message. “Something so bad happened to her but she turns it around and shows you it’s not about that,” Carlini said. 

 

Uga’s documentary isn’t a crime drama, but it doesn’t shy away from describing the horrific events of that night. Most people interviewed for the production struggle to hold back tears as they recall Alison’s injuries. 

 

“I needed to make it clear that they were a threat to society and should never be released,” Judge Chris Jansen said in the film. Unfortunately, all prisoners sentenced before October 2004 in South Africa are eligible for parole. 

 

Du Toit contacted Alison from prison, asking for a letter of forgiveness and profits from her talks and books. Alison swiftly declined the offer. 

 

Botha hopes that the film portrays the need to protect victims. She told Sunday Times that she wasn’t approached to when Du Toit and Kruger became eligible for parole:

 

“I was not approached or guided at all. I have connections and the know-how to find out what is going on and try to change it – but what about all the others? What about people who don’t even know where to start?”

 

Botha has hidden her past from her two sons

Botha and her husband, Tienie Botha, were friends for years before they started dating. They connected a year after her attack and bonded over their shared depression. Tienie’s depression resulted from unresolved childhood trauma. Alison told IOL:

 

“I think our mutual desperation was the basis of our friendship deepening as we helped each other get out of the ‘dark.’ It was just the most natural thing for us to discuss the future knowing that we would spend the rest of our lives together.”

 

Alison and Tienie wed in February 1997. They welcomed their first child, Danial, in November 2003 and their second child, Matthew, in November 2006. 

 

“Being a mother is the most important thing that I have ever done in my life,” she said. “To know that it is all actually about someone else is an incredibly humbling experience.”

 

Botha has resolved to open up about her experience to her sons. She told The Sunday Times that she’d rather they found out from her than from a book or television production. However, she waits for them to ask before she talks about it. She said:

 

 

“My oldest son was about five when he asked about the scar on my neck. I just said, ‘Mommy was hurt, and sometimes when you get hurt, you get a scar afterwards.’ And that was enough. They guide themselves in what they are able to digest. As they have got older and can comprehend more they have wanted to know more.”

Source. Thenetline