Henri van Breda's axe murder trial begins: Will his surviving sister give evidence?

South African murder accused Henri van Breda arrives at the high court in the city of Cape Town. Photo / AP

The final chapter in a gruesome murder case will finally begin on Monday when a 21 year-old goes on trial accused of butchering his wealthy parents and brother in their beds with an axe.

Henri van Breda, 21, stands to inherit a share of $16m (US) from the brutal killing of his parents, along with his sister Marli, who was left fighting for her life in the frenzied attack at their luxury family home in Cape Town, two years ago. The family had recently moved back to South Africa after spending several years living in Australia.

The 18-year-old schoolgirl, who survived the slashing of her jugular vein, is listed as a state's witness against her brother - but prosecutors are still agonising over whether to call her to give evidence or not.

The teenager reportedly remembers nothing about the 3am bloodbath in January 2015 that left her an orphan and put her in a coma. She and Henri have only had supervised contact since the grisly triple murder.

The family's friends and own social media feeds suggested they were a close-knit unit who enjoyed all the exotic travel and outdoor pursuits their huge wealth could buy.

Martin Van Breda had amassed a fortune from property and other investments and after seven years in Perth and on the Sunshine Coast, he, his 55 year-old wife Teresa and three children had moved back to South Africa for a lucrative business deal in the months before the killings.

According to court papers, a furious family row was heard at their double-storey home on the exclusive De Zalze golf estate in the hours leading up to the savage attack. When forensic officers were dispatched to the home the next morning, they were confronted with a scene of unspeakable violence.

The body of 21 year-old engineering student Rudi was found on a blood-soaked bed next to his father Martin, 54. Both had suffered fatal blows with an axe to their heads. Mother-of-three Teresa had been cut down on the balcony of the same upstairs room - also dead from a gaping head wound - along with Marli, who was discovered close to death with a gash to her neck.

A large knife from the kitchen downstairs and the murder weapon - a bloodied axe, weighing 4.5kg - was found near their bodies.

Marli van Breda survived the attack, and is listed as a state witness against her brother.

Only Henri, then a science undergraduate, escaped the furious onslaught with minor cuts - described in medical reports as "superficial" and "self inflicted". He had waited four hours after the 3am killings before raising the alarm, after trying his girlfriend first.

A recording of his 7am call to emergency services was leaked to the press and in it, the then 20-year-old is heard calmly reporting how his family had been attacked with an axe, before suppressing a giggle as he explains how they are all "bleeding from the head".

In later interviews with detectives, Henri claimed that an axe-wielding stranger had breached the estate's state-of-the-art security to set upon his loved ones in their beds while he was in the bathroom.

He described watching as the lone assailant mercilessly killed his family one by one before hurling the murder weapon at his own head, knocking him out cold.

For 18 months after the massacre, the police appeared to be making little or no progress in their murder investigation, triggering speculation about whether anyone would ever face charges for the deaths. Marli slowly recovered from her injuries and returned to her exclusive boarding school and Henri left the care of his aunt and uncle, to move in with his girlfriend.

Suddenly in June last year, Henri surrendered himself to his local police station after hearing they were about to pick him up, and was charged with three counts of murder, one of attempted murder and another relating to obstructing justice.

Since his release on $8,000 US bail, Van Breda was arrested on a drugs charge, along with his girlfriend Danielle Janse Van Rensburg, 21, whom he met at cooking school in the months after his parents and brother were killed.

The latest charge mirrors reports that Van Breda had a history of using drugs which had put him in conflict with his parents. A teenager living in a shack near the family's luxury winelands home told South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper how he had been paid as a "drug runner" by Van Breda who was addicted to crystal meth.

Another newspaper report suggested Van Breda had spent time in rehab in recent years and had had his allowance cut by his concerned parents in the weeks leading up to their murder.

Miss Janse Van Rensburg will be supporting her boyfriend throughout his murder trial and has declared herself to be "100 per cent" convinced of his innocence.

Representing Van Breda is Pieter Botha, who was in the defence team for Shrien Dewani, a gay British millionaire who was sensationally cleared of arranging the assassination of his new wife during their 2010 honeymoon to Cape Town.

As the tragic case reaches its dramatic climax, it seems the fate of the family's fortunes are also finally being sealed. The home where the massacre took place was recently and quietly sold off for $500,000, little more than half of the going rate for such a coveted address.

Meanwhile, a seven-bedroom mansion on the Sunshine Coast, that Mr and Mrs Van Breda had planned to return to after a limited spell in Cape Town, is now also on the market for $2.5 million.

But whether Van Breda himself will inherit his parents wealth remains to be seen - under South African law, no one convicted of killing can profit financially from their crimes.