Alison Botha was just 27 (Image: YouTube)
Alison Botha has survived a nightmare beyond comprehension and miraculously lived to share her harrowing experience.
At the age of 27, Alison was kidnapped and endured a savage gang rape, during which she was also disemboweled, forcing her to hold her intestines in as her semi-decapitated head “flopped backwards and almost rested between [her] shoulder blades”.
Hailing from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and appointed head girl of her school in 1985, Alison was recognised by her school for her “utmost positivity and sound moral values”. She was employed as an insurance broker when, on December 18, 1994, after spending the evening with friends, she returned home.
She recounted that “I had just turned off the engine and flicked off the headlights – it was so routine that I didn’t all in one swift movement.”
Reaching for her laundry on the passenger seat, Alison was startled by the intrusion of a blonde man into her car. Frans DuToit, a police officer’s son, threatened her life, claiming he did not wish to harm her but merely needed the car for an hour, reports the Mirror US.
Alison recalled feeling “strangely immobilised”. Du Toit ominously said: “You live in number one don’t you” – a remark that felt more like a threat than a question.
In a desperate attempt to establish a connection with her abductor, Alison tried to engage him, but he dismissed her, saying, “I’d rather not say anything about me.”
She suggested he simply take the car, but he insisted he “wanted company”, as reported by Morbid.
Theuns Krugeras was released on parole (Image: AP)
After driving a considerable distance from the town, Du Toit cruised past a gathering of people on the street twice, his eyes scanning for one individual – Theuns Krugeras.
The diminutive man, clad entirely in black, approached the driver’s side and climbed into the car. Du Toit, who had adopted the pseudonym “Clinton”, adjusted the driver’s seat forward as Krugeras got in, introducing Alison as “meet my friend Susan” – another false name.
The journey towards a suburb outside Port Elizabeth was eerily silent until Du Toit broke it with, “Theuns doesn’t speak good English.”
Approaching a wooded area, Du Toit slowed down and parked on the sand. Krugeras exited the vehicle, and then Clinton violated Alison.
Krugeras began to assault her too but abruptly stopped, exclaiming, “no I can’t do this” inadvertently shouting “Frans” at his accomplice. Alison committed this name to memory.
Frans then warned Alison, “If we take you into town now you’ll go to the police”. Du Toit posed a chilling question: “what do you think Oom Nick would want us to do with her.”
Oom Nick is an Afrikaans reference to Satan.
Krugeras responded, ” I think he wants us to kill her.”
Alison has campaigned tirelessly since (Image: YouTube)
The duo forced Alison to remove her rings and clothes before Du Toit strangled her into unconsciousness, apologising as he towered over her. When Alison regained consciousness, she found herself amidst rubbish, witnessing a man’s arm slashing in front of her face.
She was horrified to realise that he was slitting her throat.
She recounted the horrific experience, saying she could “could hear the flesh slit.”
Heartbreakingly, it was later found that her throat had been slashed 16 times by the attackers, leaving Alison nearly decapitated.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the assault ceased, and Alison managed to roll onto her stomach. She remembered: “I tried to hold my breath but I realised I had no control over my breathing – I moved my hand up to cover my neck – my whole hand disappeared into it, but it seemed to have worked – the sound was silenced.”
Pretending to be dead, she heard one assailant ask if she was deceased with the other replying “no one can survive that”. Holding on to hope and seeking justice, despite her grave injuries, she scrawled her attackers’ names in the sand, poignantly adding “I love mom.”
Describing the surreal sensation of her injuries, she mentioned: “It was as if I’d cut moorings. As I hovered there I recognised the person down below – I knew it was me and I felt such a strong connection to that bleeding mangled girl lying on her stomach.”
Miraculously spotting some lights, she realised she was closer to the road than expected. With unfathomable strength, she pushed herself onto her knees and upon touching her stomach, felt something “tepid, wet and slimy”.
Looking down, she was confronted with the sight of her intestines hanging out from an abdominal wound.
She described the horrifying scene, saying “it was horrifying there was just so much of me on the outside. I tried to scoop it all up with my hands but everything just slithered away again.”
After being stabbed in the abdomen over 50 times, she used a shirt to hold her intestines in place, while debris and broken glass cut into her hands and knees. Half of her thyroid was protruding from her neck.
She revealed that at this point, she realised the trail of blood she would leave behind if found would devastate her friends and family, knowing she had suffered in her final moments.
She further shared: “My head had flopped backwards and almost rested between my shoulder blades. I expected to feel something but was completely taken aback when my hand disappeared inside me almost like I had swallowed myself.”
With one hand holding her head forward and the other keeping her intestines in place, she managed to reach the middle of the road and lay horizontally to force drivers to stop.
Upon seeing the first car, she said she ” frantically waved as fast as I could” – but the car swerved around her. The next thing Alison saw was a woman screaming and a young man kneeling over her.
It was 2.45 am by the time she was discovered – meaning her abduction to her discovery had spanned only an hour and a half.
Alison Botha was abducted near her home (Image: YouTube)
Tiaan Eilerd, a vet, was at a bar with friends when he stumbled upon Alison. He immediately checked her vitals and managed to tuck her thyroid back into her throat – an action Alison would later call a “lifeline”.
The vet was astonished that Alison was still alive, describing her as looking like a “creature straight out of a Dickens novel” with her neck horrifically split open “almost ear to ear”. Without Tiaan’s quick intervention to reposition her thyroid, she likely would not have survived.
Alison’s intestines had been stabbed multiple times, and her abdominal muscles were in ruins. She recounted that one of her assailants expressed an intention to destroy her reproductive organs.
Yet, against all odds, she miraculously gave birth to two children later on.
Following extensive surgery, Alison was placed in the ICU. As her attack became public knowledge, police discovered that her attackers were already on bail for rape.
Both men, who identified as Satanists, admitted guilt to charges of kidnapping, rape, and attempted murder. Du Toit confessed to raping another woman but claimed he lost the “urge to kill her” post-assault.
In 1995, both received life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Alison Botha survived her ordeal (Image: undefined)
Alison became an advocate when there was a chance the law might change in 2012, stating, “can you imagine if just 100 lifers were reintroduced to society without rehabilitation.”
Her campaigning efforts were instrumental in ensuring that such prisoners remained behind bars.
However, on 4 July 2023, Du Toit and Krugeras, who had served only 28 years of their life sentence, were released on parole without notifying Alison. On her Facebook page, Alison Botha expressed her dismay: “The day I hoped and prayed would never come. When I was asked ‘How will you feel if they ever get parole?’ – my immediate answer was always – ‘I’m hoping I’ll never find out.'”.
Alison has recounted her harrowing ordeal and remarkable recovery in her book “I Have Life” and the movie “Alison”, which premiered in August this year. She has spoken to hundreds, inspiring them with her story of how attitude, belief, and choice enabled her to survive.
She received the esteemed Rotarian Paul Harris Award for ‘Courage Beyond the Norm’ and was the inaugural winner of Femina magazine’s ‘Woman of Courage’ award, as well as being named Port Elizabeth’s Citizen of the Year.
With the release of her film, Alison remarked: “‘I have always hoped that by sharing my own journey with others, it would give them hope and courage for their own. To have my story and ultimate triumph shared on screen, would mean that so many more people would see the power of choice that we each have; and might also choose to triumph over life’s hardships”.
Beyond her professional endeavours, Alison asserts that her most significant role is being a single mother to her two sons. In recognition of her unwavering dedication to inspiring others to rise above their situations, conquer life’s challenges and remain resilient in adversity, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University is proud to bestow upon Alison Botha the Council Prestige Award.