Farmer Left Paralysed by Violent Robbery in South Africa 20 Years Ago Is Tied Up and Murdered in His Wheelchair

A helpless farmer shot through the spine by robbers and left paralysed 20 years ago in South Africa was tied up in his wheelchair and cruelly strangled to death in a second attack.

Neil McKay, 46, was found by his distraught mother when she visited the farm in Winterton to check on him.

Widow Bev went upstairs and found her disabled son tied up in his wheelchair in his bedroom.

Police investigators said he had been strangled by his captors, who had been hiding close to the property, waiting for Neil to be alone.

His death has sparked fury in the town of Winterton in KwaZulu-Natal province, especially as his attackers were not captured after the first assault.

Alf Lees the Democratic Alliance MP for Uthukela constituency said: ‘Who would murder a man in a wheelchair? A man who was unarmed and physically unable to defend himself?

‘Neil was a gentle and friendly man of peace who refused to carry or have a gun despite living on a farm where his late father made it possible for him to work from a wheelchair.

‘It seems his attackers were keeping watch on the farm and attacked the defenceless Neil when his farm manager and staff had left and he was alone for the evening.

‘First, they cleaned out the safe then they apparently dragged Neil to his bedroom where they brutally strangled him to death having tied him up despite being in a wheelchair.

‘Despite 20 years having passed since the first attack on Neil, the attackers have never been convicted and Mrs McKay has had to live through that and now his murder.

‘He was murdered by people who don’t deserve any place in our society except prison’.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said officers had opened a murder investigation into the incident.

She added McKay’s body was found strangled at Skietdrif Farm in Winterton.

She said: ‘The body of 46-year-old man was found strangled to death in his wheelchair. We believe he had been tied up and murdered.’

A family friend explained the attackers had targeted McKay so they could steal the money in his safe.

The robbers, he said, left out three of McKay’s six dogs before tying up the victim and strangling him to death.

The other three dogs were slashed with knives as they tried to defence McKay, he said.

‘How much more evil can you get than tying up a terrified man in a wheelchair who cannot defend himself and offered no resistance and then strangle the life out of him?’, he said.

McKay was first attacked 20 years ago while working at a farm run by the Boettiger family in Winterton.

In the assault, armed robbers stormed the farm and shot McKay through the spine, leaving him paralysed.

His father Bert converted their farm in Winterton to allow Neil to be able to run it from his wheelchair.

He passed away several years ago and left Neil to run the family’s chicken farm alone.

South African police have not yet made any arrests.