On August 9th 2013 Louisa Cornelius Susanna vurva was born in westonaria South Africa to parents Louisa and Christo she was named after her mother but her family referred to her as poppy or doll which is a term of endearment in Africans and Poppy did look like a doll she soon grew to be a blond-haired blue-eyed toddler at the time of our story poppy was just 3 years old now her mother the Elder Louisa had a rough childhood her biological father died in 1984 around the time that she was 10 or 11 years old her mother soon remarried
And Louisa claimed that her stepfather was just terrible she said that he was not only emotionally and physically abusive but he allegedly essayed her as well she said he spent years making her feel absolutely worthless by the time Louisa was 18 she was looking for any way out of that situation she married her first husband Freddy L shortly after turning 18 they had two children yaku and mares who were about 4 years apart now unfortunately for Louisa Freddy wasn’t much better than her stepfather eventually her mother Susan helped her
Escape this dangerous relationship it was after leaving Freddy that Louisa met a diesel mechanic named Christo Vandura the couple were soon married and went on to live in Weston area South Africa they first had a son named Johan and then later poppy based on the timeline our best guess is that Poppy and her brother are about 2 years apart in age fortunately this marriage also did not last poppy was born in August of 2013 in 2014 Louisa was beginning divorce proceedings she claimed that Christo was also abusive
And got a restraining order against him it’s made it very hard for Christo to have visitation with his children the next two years he only had three supervised visits with poppy and her brother however he was allowed a weekly phone call every Sunday most of these phone calls were recorded many of these recordings that include poppy singing to her father have made it into the public domain Christo’s parents were allowed occasional visitation with the two young children after leaving Christo Louisa moved about 500 kilometers from Western
Area to arania which means Orange in Africans Aria is a town located on the Orange River in the northern Cape of South Africa it is not a large Town according to reports there were only 2,000 66 residents living in iria in 2020 however their town has experienced substantial growth in the time between 2014 and 2020 and we estimate there were just over 1,000 residents in arania at the time that Louisa moved there although this is not a major plot point in our story I feel like we have to address the controversy surrounding
Arania which is an all-white town in South Africa it’s populated by the africaner people who are descendants of Dutch settlers who colonized the region first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 africander dominated South Africa’s Politics as well as the country’s commercial agricultural sector up until 1994 Aria has been criticized for its separatist ideals with many feeling like they’re trying to revive apartheid according to their current leader Carl bosov IV their goal is to preserve africaner culture are people with a distinct
Identity which goes back for uh at least 300 years u in Africa and um we view the particular identity that that we have and that we represent as something of value I obviously live in the states and I’m no expert in South African politics or the nuances of living there my knowledge of South African culture is very limited so if you live in South Africa let us know your thoughts on Aria in the comments in 2014 Louisa moved to Aria and was welcomed by the local members of the Dutch reform church there she met Heidi Smith a social worker who
Was tasked with getting Louisa settled into the community she helped Place Louisa’s children in child care got her a job at a local supermarket and secured housing for her she also assisted Louisa in completing her divorce proceedings against Christo Heidi initially noted that Poppy and her brother seemed fairly typical by this point marle was 14 years old quickly became clear that she was the primary caregiver of the two younger children she did all of the housework including cooking and cleaning the children even called her mommy on
Occasion this fact was noted in the documentation that Heidi was keeping however no one seemed to question this Dynamic it was simply noted that this Arrangement seemed to be a good thing because mariss was more calm than Louisa and did a better job parenting the young children in 2015 kobis camore moved to Orana and was also off offered a job at the local supermarket this is where he and Louisa met coob is also had a string of broken marriages behind him we know that he was married at least twice before Louisa and also had at least one
Child from each marriage he later said that he had no idea where his oldest child was however he did pay monthly child support payments for the child from his second marriage Louisa and kobus quickly struck up a romantic relationship after dating for just a few months were engaged and soon moved in together they later married on November 14th 2015 the very next day Mary was abruptly kicked out of the family home she was put on a bus and sent to live with her father several hundred kilometers away in the Eastern Cape this
Sudden Change in family Dynamics was very traumatizing to Poppy and her brother Johan Mary had essentially been acting as their mother she was ripped from their lives and replaced with a man would soon prove to be the exact opposite of the safe consistent caregiver that mariss had been almost immediately after Louisa and kobis were married Louisa quit her job at the supermarket at this point the staff at the daycare had begun noticing some concerning signs of abuse in Johan workers noted that whenever kobus and
Louisa came to pick up the children the boy would run and hide in the bathroom Louisa had warned the staff of her son’s alleged Outburst as she referred to them and staff found this confusing as the only thing they ever saw was his sweet and loving nature when they reported back they were having no trouble with Johan being aggressive kobus accused the staff of drugging him into compliance another concerning sign was that the children often showed up in clothing that was either clearly not theirs or totally inappropriate for the weather on
One occasion in the hot summer months Johan showed up in a very thick winter jacket when the teachers tried to suggest that he take it off he became defensive and scared saying that kobas and Louisa would be mad if he removed it we can only assume now that this jacket was probably hiding bruises or other injuries not long after Louisa and kobis were married Louisa stopped bringing Johan to daycare however poppy continued to go regularly the Assumption was that Poppy remained in daycare due to her limited vocabulary making it less likely
That she was going to Spill the Beans of what was going on at home however even with her inability to verbalize how she was being harmed her body told the story anyway poppy began going to daycare with bruises in strange places such as her earlobes and her feet at first this was not overly concerning but the staff soon noticed that before her bruises healed new ones were popping up but of course as we often hear in those cases kobus and Louisa blamed all of these injuries on rough play or Poppy’s own clumsiness
they also blamed Poppy’s brother who they were continuing to try to cast in a violent light now if you’ve ever done mandated reporter training you know that one of the things always noted as a sign of abuse is bruising on a child’s ears there is no natural way that children end up with bruising on their ears when they’re playing unlike the very common bruising that you see when children fall on their knees when they’re playing or running the workers at the daycare were not the only ones noticing that something was a Miss in the household
while living in Arna they had a neighbor named yaku Ru yaku later testified that he was constantly hearing signs that the household was more than just dysfunctional through the walls he regularly heard both adults belittling the kids he heard them yelling and swearing at them after any small offense he told authorities that once he heard the adult screaming at poppy for soiling her bed and then heard anguish Cries From the young girl he said her screams were Indescribable his own words several days later the neighbor saw poppy
returning home with a cast on her leg he noted that during the time that Poppy’s broken leg was healing the adults did not offer her any assistance whatsoever she was made to climb in and out of their truck independently and carry her own suitcase yaku also noted that Poppy often woke up in the middle of the night screaming from nightmares he said she would cry for 20 to 30 minutes also noted that the children always seemed solemn when the parents were there but he sometimes saw the occasional smile when the children were alone on another
occasion yaku noted that after an evening of screaming from the adults he heard a large thump Follow by screams of pain from Poppy the next day he saw her with a massive bruise on her head and she was cradling her arm to her chest yaku approached kobus to ask what had happened kobus went into a rage and stormed off without giving any sort of explanation however Louisa told yaku that Poppy had just simply fallen down the stairs yaku also spoke of a disturbing incident where poppy and Johan were sitting on the steps to their
house while kobus was watering their Garden their stepfather suddenly turned the hose on the children and soaked them with freezing cold water he started yelling at them for making alleged inappropriate advances toward each other according to the neighbor it was Winter and the children cried bitterly and said that they were cold yaku said Louisa then came out the door and yelled at the children and mind you these are her words you wanted to F each other yaku said he would never forget those words they were then made to stand naked
in the bitter cold yard that day until they dried keep in mind these children were about three and 5 years old at the time yaku reported these things to the social workers in arania due to the mandated reporter laws the social workers were then obligated to investigate these allegations and make a police report unfortunately being a small town Arna did not have its own police force protocol was to report incidents the nearest police station in h toown about 40 km away however no reports of abuse were ever made to the
hopetown police regarding the children yaku said he did not report to the police himself as Iranian citizens faced expulsion from the town if they ask for help from Outsiders after the reports from yaku and the staff of the daycare a meeting was called between social workers Louisa and Copus in August of 2016 the social workers wanted to set up a system to ensure that the children were being monitored kobus and Louisa were told they needed to take the children to weekly checkups with an appointed doctor they were also told to
go to counseling initially the couple went along with these rules the children were brought to the doctor a few times and the couple even attended a few counseling sessions during this time yaku reported back to the social workers to say that it seemed the mistreatment of the children was at an alltime high however the social workers brushed him off and said they were dealing with it the doctor had been noting bruises on Poppy’s body during his weekly examinations he asked poppy about them but with her limited vocabulary she
could only say they hurt me you would think that as these visits were specifically set up to monitor for CA the doctor would see that this is a clear sign that something was wrong however he claimed that since she didn’t say who hurt her he didn’t document these injuries as legitimate signs of abuse unfortunately yaka woke up one morning in September of 2016 to find their house deserted the family had packed up and just disappeared into the night kobus did not quit his job and the daycare staff were not informed that
Poppy wouldn’t be returning the family just up and left kobus and Louisa drove almost 8 hours to the small farming community of Brits where they found a place to stay at one of the local farms while the family was living on the farm Louisa’s brother died suddenly his funeral created a a rare occasion where Louisa and her children would be in the presence of Louisa’s mother and extended family Louisa’s mother Susan was immediately concerned when she saw the condition of the children she noticed that Johan was covered in bruises when
the boy was asked about his injuries he said that kobus had hit him but of course Louisa denied this Susan also noticed that the children did not look healthy she was so concerned after this visit that she reached out to a local Pastor for help however she was not given any help or support instead she was scolded and told not to interfere in her daughter’s marriage she never reported any more abuse or question the couple again on October 25th 2016 just a month after fleeing the investigation happening in arania kobis was seen running through
the parking lot of Brit’s Provincial Hospital with poppy in his arms he asked hospital staff to help her as she was not breathing however it quickly became apparent that was far far too late the doctor attempted to open Poppy’s Airway to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation he found that rigger mortise had already set in mouth could not be opened poppy had already been dead for quite some time poppy had arrived at the hospital in just a pair of underwear and her entire body was black and blue the doctors were
immediately suspicious and asked kobus where all the bruises came from to which he claimed was from her lifeless body bouncing around in the back of the truck on the way to the hospital more on that in a bit the doctors also noticed Poppy’s brother in the room Johan refused to make eye contact instead he huddled in the corner looking scared when the doctors asked him what happened he continued to avoid eye contact but he said clearly poppy didn’t want to eat her food the doctor took kobus into his office and told him that he was calling
the police Kus tried to talk his way out of it saying that involving the police was unnecessary luckily the doctor was unmoved and made the call while waiting for the police to arrive the medical staff took pictures of Poppy’s damaged body when the first police officer arrived he was initially just shown photos of Poppy’s injuries the officer who was the father of a 13-month-old baby was overcome with the horror of her injuries and was unable to hold back tears he said his whole career he never had seen such a young child look so
broken he then asked to be taken to her parents the officer interviewed Louisa and kobus separately kass’s initial story was that Poppy had simply collapsed while watching TV Louis’s story was similar but she added a few things that we’ll touch on in just a moment kobis was taken into police custody but Louisa was allowed to return home the story of how poppy died will likely never be fully known but through various testimony and evidence a rough story has been put together Louisa claimed that the day before poppy died
kobus had hit her head on a cabinet following morning on October 25th poppy was not herself kobus claimed that Louisa had thrown poppy from their bedroom when she found the toddler had soiled the bed the little girl did not want to eat or talk all day long Louisa described her as half awake and half asleep as she lay on a mat in front of the television Louisa said that kobus returned home later in the day from running errands and getting groceries and she told him that Poppy was was very tired and needed to rest Lisa said that
he then walked over to Poppy kicked her in the stomach she said that this was normal and he did this very often she also could not recall if poppy cried when she was kicked kobus then told Louisa to go get the groceries from the vehicle so she did Lisa returned with the groceries she claims that Poppy was no longer on the carpet and that kobus told her that Poppy is playing dead again they later claim that Poppy did this frequently she’d been having spells where she wasn’t breathing and had to be shaken to take a breath but they also
claimed that she just liked to pretend to play dead Louisa said she found poppy in the bathroom and her lips were blue she claimed that she attempted CPR in mouth to mouth but it didn’t work Kus also said he tried splashing water on her face to Rouse her when none of that worked they headed for the hospital the couple claimed that the rough ride in the back of the truck was what caused the bruises that’s right she was not in their arms she was just laid in the back to bounce around while they drove now obviously we know that her caretakers
had been leaving bruises on her body long before the day they finally took her life so this detail isn’t truly necessary to illustrate how she became so badly bruised instead this shows us that this is the nicest thing that they could think to say about how she was treated was that she was laid alone in br broken in the back of a truck while they drove to the hospital when Poppy’s grandmother was allowed to view her body she was absolutely shocked she said that she couldn’t even recognize the poor girl through all of the injuries from
yaku’s testimony it also sounds like hitting her head on the cabinet wasn’t what caused the state from what he could observe in the residence next door it sounded like poppy was regularly thrown against the walls or cabinets as punishment Louisa remained free until Poppy’s autopsy report came out according to the report the bottom left of her skull was filled with blood and she had several abrasions on her face chest and thighs she died from one or more blows to the Head now it could not be ruled out that she wasn’t kicked or that her head
hadn’t been smashed against a solid surface like they claimed it was also noted that there were numerous other injuries that had been inflicted over time there was no doubt that she was the victim of deliberate CA occurring over a long period of time the best estimate is that this took place from September 2015 till she died in October of 2016 as the story of Poppy’s death reached the community residents were outraged Copus was regularly being targeted and attacked by other inmates while in prison several death threats
were made against him now initially Louisa was left out of the spotlight however as more information came out it became clear to the community that at the very least Louisa allowed her children to be beaten and tortured by her husband but is more likely that she also participated before Poppy’s funeral on November 4th 2016 Louisa got a visit from a woman posing as a police officer she convinced Louisa that she needed to go with them for questioning instead Louisa was kidnapped taken to an isolated location and badly beaten she
arrived at Poppy’s funeral with a face entirely black and blue Louisa was arrested on December 15th 2016 and charged in her daughter’s death there was a significant delay before the trial was held because no one would agree to represent the couple the trial eventually began in October of 2017 one year after Poppy’s death another reason for the delay is a reason that YouTube does not like us to talk about for the trial kobus tried twice to remove himself permanently from being forced to face the consequences of his actions
against poppy once with a knife and once with a bottle of cleaning chemicals during the trial Louise’s children testified against the couple Marley testified that she was badly mistreated in the time before she was kicked out of the house she also added that Louisa would just stand and watch as kobus beat and berated her in addition unidentified teen testified against them her identity was Kept Secret from the public in the jury she had babysat Poppy and her brother and had been the victim of kass’s Rage as well kobus had accused her of being
intimate with men in their house when she was babysitting she also testified that she heard Poppy and her brother being beaten girl said I quote at times the beatings were so bad that her terrified screams actually masked the sounds of the punches and thuds against the wall she was so frantic furthermore Poppy’s brother Johan testified against his mother and stepfather as well when asked if it was true that kobus had tried to Rouse poppy by splashing water on her face as he had previously testified the boy had a different story
he said that kobus had actually stuck Poppy’s head in the toilet and flushed it to try to stop her from playing dead however even that did not Rouse her when asked what his mother was doing while poppy Lay Dying the boy said she just stood in the doorway and watched both Louis and kobus were found guilty of killing poppy in May of 2018 they were both sentenced to life in prison they were also given 10 additional years for CA against both Poppy and her brother the judge in this case judge Bert bomb was particularly Disturbed and Furious
about Poppy’s story he noticed in the courtroom how unaffected Louisa and kobus were by the horrifying images of Poppy’s body whereas other people in the room could barely stand to look at them he went so far as to call the couple inherently evil and noted that it seemed their only regret was being caught judge bomb was also outraged that all of this had gone on for so long unlike an acute fit of rage that might end someone’s life there were hundreds of opportunities for someone to step in and save Poppy’s life he blamed the social
worker the school teachers and the doctors who examined poppy he said they were accompli in her death he even went so far as filing a petition against them however nothing came of these attempts and no one else was ever prosecuted in Poppy’s death Johan was taken and placed in the custody of a family member after Louisa was arrested marle continued to live with her biological father Freddy else she said that she felt enormously guilty for what happened to her sister she wished that she was really Poppy’s mom because if she was poppy would still
be alive typically at the end of these Stories We like to share something nice about the victim in our story however not much is known about poppy other than the horrors that she endured we even struggle to say that she would have been better off in the custody of her father despite Christo’s emotional appearance in the media and at Poppy’s funeral his record tells us that he is not an entirely innocent party either after Poppy’s death Christo was once again accused of DV Christo’s new wife said that she was enabl to attend several
days of Poppy’s trial because kisto had beaten her so badly that she couldn’t see we can only hope that in Christo’s care Poppy’s brother Johan fars better than poppy did
