Reeva Steenkamp may not have been so excited had she known what her boyfriend had up his sleeve 24 hours later, shooting her three times through a bathroom door on 14th February 2013.
In what was argued to be a misunderstanding, Oscar Pistorius said he thought an intruder had broken into his home and hidden in the bathroom. In apparent fear for his life, and that of Steenkamp, he fired four shots through the door with three of them striking the model, killing her.
In 2005, after graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree, Steenkamp moved to Johannesburg to continue an already promising modelling career, being voted one of the “100 sexiest women in the world” in 2011 and 2012 by FHM magazine.
Knowing the celebrity wouldn’t last forever, she applied to the bar in late 2011, and hoped to be a qualified legal advocate by the age of 30 with the intention of starting a law firm with a university friend to help abused women.
She was also pursuing a television career, her reality TV debut scheduled to be broadcast two days after she died.
The 29-year-old had been dating Paralympian Oscar Pistorius for four months before her death and planned to declare her love for him for the first time in his Valentine’s Day card with the message “I think today is a good day to tell you that, I love you”, but never had the chance to see him open it.
Pistorius, known as ‘Blade Runner’ due to the special carbon fibre blades affixed to his legs, made history when he became the first double-amputee to compete in the able-bodied London 2012 summer Olympics. He was born without the fibulae bones, necessitating amputation below the his knees when he was just 11 months old.
The athlete admitted to shooting his girlfriend but said he believed Steenkamp was in bed when he shot at what he thought was an intruder behind the toilet door, and that he had spoken to her in bed shortly beforehand. He admitted the killing, but denied the charge of murder.
He was arrested for murder and after four days bailed at R1 million (US$113,000).
In a televised trial lasting over six-months, under the constant glare of the world’s media, it was revealed that the jealous and possessive Pistorius was no stranger to firearms.
One witness recalled an evening just a few short weeks before the shooting when the Olympian had been dining with friends. One of the party had a pistol which was passed to Pistorius under the table who then fired it. The shot ricocheted and almost hit another friend’s foot who then took responsibility for the weapon discharge, protecting Pistorius from any bad press.
Other witnesses spoke of a man obsessed with fast cars and guns, who had planned to buy several more firearms just before the shooting. He vowed during the trial that he would never touch a gun again.
Steenkamp constantly referred to the athlete as “my boo” on social media and posted holiday pictures of them together. But messages read during the trial showed a couple that had some rocky patches as well. In some of the messages, she accused him of being overly jealous and overbearing.
In a Whatsapp conversation sent a few weeks before, Steenkamp wrote: “I’m scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me.”
The model also wrote she felt “picked on” and “attacked” by the one person she “deserved protection from”- referring to the athlete- and was upset by his jealous tantrums.
On 12 September 2014, over 18 months after the shooting, Pistorius was found not guilty of murder but guilty of the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp and guilty of reckless endangerment with a firearm at a restaurant in a separate incident.
Judge Masipa said the state had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder and also ruled out dolus eventualis, (common murder), accepting that “he did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility, that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased as he thought she was in the bedroom”.
However, she said a reasonable person in the same circumstances would have “foreseen the possibility that if he fired four shots whoever was behind the toilet [door] might be struck and die as a result”. She said Pistorius “failed to take any steps to avoid the death”, “acted too hastily and used excessive force” and his actions were clearly negligent.
Pistorius received a prison sentence of a maximum of five years for culpable homicide. He also received a concurrent three-year prison sentence, which was suspended for five years, for the separate reckless endangerment conviction.
On 4 November 2014, prosecutors applied to the sentencing judge for permission to appeal the culpable homicide verdict, stating that the five-year prison term was “shockingly light, inappropriate and would not have been imposed by any reasonable court”.
Pistorious was released from prison on 19 October 2015.
On 3 November 2015, by a unanimous decision, the court overturned Pistorius’s culpable homicide conviction and found him guilty of murder in the death of Reeva Steenkamp. He was sentenced to six years.
Pistorious was sent back to jail where he would be eligible for release on parole in 2019, after serving just three years.
On 21 July 2016, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed that it would appeal against the Judge’s “shockingly lenient” 6-year jail sentence.
On 24 November 2017, Pistorius’s jail sentence was increased to 15 years, less time already served.
Pistorius was again released on parole on 5 January 2024 with conditions in place until his sentence expires on 5 December 2029.
June Steenkamp, Reeva’s mother, set up the Reeva Steenkamp Foundation in her honour, to “be Reeva’s voice and continue her work in educating and empowering victims of violence and abuse.”
