Woman, 27, had to carry own intestines after being gang raped and disemboweled | World | News

Alison Botha endured an unimaginable horror and, defying all expectations, survived to share her harrowing experience.

Aged just 27, Alison was abducted and subjected to a brutal gang rape during which she was also disembowelled, leaving her clutching her own intestines whilst her semi-decapitated head “flopped backwards and almost rested between [her] shoulder blades.”

Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and named head girl of her school in 1985, Alison was described by her institution as a young woman of “utmost positivity and sound moral values.”

She was working as an insurance broker when she spent an evening socialising with friends on December 18, 1994.

She returned to her home and parked up, later remembering: “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.”

As she reached across to the passenger seat to collect her laundry, she spotted the head of a fair-haired man forcing his way into her car.

Frans DuToit, the son of a police officer, threatened her life, insisting he didn’t want to harm her and merely needed to borrow the vehicle for an hour.

Alison recalled feeling “strangely immobilized.”

Du Toit said: “You live in number one don’t you” – which she described as feeling more like a threat than a question.

Alison desperately tried to build a connection with her captor, but he responded: “I’d rather not say anything about me.”

She proposed that he simply take the car, but he insisted he “wanted company,” according to Morbid.

After driving a considerable distance from town, Du Toit circled past a crowd of people on the street twice, his eyes searching for one face – Theuns Krugeras.

The short man, clad entirely in black, approached the driver’s side and climbed into the vehicle. Du Toit, who had introduced himself under the false name “Clinton”, adjusted the driver’s seat forward, introducing Alison as “meet my friend Susan,” to Krugeras as he got in, both using pseudonyms.

They journeyed towards a suburb outside Port Elizabeth in an eerie silence before Du Toit casually mentioned, “Theuns doesn’t speak good English.”

Approaching a wooded area, Du Toit slowed the car and parked on the sandy terrain. Krugeras got out of the car, and then Clinton raped Alison.

Krugeras started raping her too, but abruptly halted, saying “no I can’t do this” before mistakenly shouting “Frans” at his accomplice. This name lodged itself in Alison’s memory.

Frans then warned Alison, “If we take you into town now you’ll go to the police”. Du Toit followed up with a chilling question, “what do you think Oom Nick would want us to do with her.”

Oom Nick is an Afrikaans term referring to Satan.

Krugeras responded: “I think he wants us to kill her.”

The pair forced Alison to remove her rings and clothes before Du Toit choked her until she lost consciousness as he stood over her apologising.

Alison then woke up surrounded by rubbish before witnessing a man’s arm slashing in front of her face, leading to the horrifying realisation that he was cutting her throat.

She said she “could hear the flesh slit.”

It was later established the men slit her throat 16 times and Alison was nearly decapitated.

Suddenly the attack stopped and Alison managed to turn onto her stomach. She said: “I tried to hold my breath but I realized 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.”

She now faked her death. One attacker asked the other if they thought she was dead, with the other replying “no one can survive that.”

Alison, despite her injuries, was determined her attackers should face justice – wrote their names in the sand, adding “I love mom.”

Recalling how her injuries felt, she said: “It was as if I’d cut moorings. As I hovered there I recognized 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.”

She then spotted a glimmer of lights and realised she was closer to the road than she thought. She managed to push herself up to her knees – reached down to her stomach and felt something “tepid, wet and slimy.”

Glancing downwards, she discovered her intestines were exposed and protruding from her stomach.

Recounting the terrifying ordeal, she stated “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.”

She had sustained more than 50 stab wounds to her abdomen.

Using a shirt, she secured her intestines whilst debris and shattered glass cut her hands and knees. Half her thyroid was jutting from her neck.

She recalled realising at this moment if someone discovered her, there would be an extensive blood trail behind her, and her loved ones would be heartbroken knowing she had endured such agony in her final moments.

She said: “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 supporting her head and the other securing her intestines, she reached the centre of the road and positioned herself horizontally so motorists would be forced to stop.

Upon spotting the first vehicle, she explained she “frantically waved as fast” as possible – but the car manoeuvred around her. The next thing Alison witnessed was a woman screaming and a young man crouching beside her.

It was 2.45am when she was discovered – meaning her abduction to rescue had lasted merely an hour and a half. Tiaan Eilerd, who had been socialising with friends at a bar, found Alison.

As a vet, he checked her vital signs and repositioned her thyroid back into her throat – Alison would later refer to him as a “lifeline.”

The vet was astounded that she had survived. He likened her appearance to a “creature straight out of a Dickens novel” with her neck brutally cut open “almost ear to ear.”

Without Tiaan’s intervention in adjusting her thyroid, she would have lost her life.

Her intestines had been punctured multiple times and her abdominal muscles had collapsed. She later disclosed that one of the attackers had expressed their intention to mutilate her reproductive organs.

Yet, miraculously, she went on to become a mother to two children.

After extensive surgery, Alison was transferred to the ICU. As news of her attack spread, police discovered the pair were already out on bail for rape charges.

Both culprits identified as Satanists and pleaded guilty to kidnapping, rape and attempted murder.

Du Toit had sexually assaulted another woman but the “urge to killer her had passed” after he raped her.

Both were handed life sentences without the possibility of parole in 1995.

When potential legislative changes emerged in 2012, Alison posed the question: “Can you imagine if just 100 lifers were reintroduced to society without rehabilitation.”

Her campaigning ensured they remained behind bars. However, on July 4, 2023, Du Toit and Kruger, who had served just 28 years of their life sentence, were granted parole.

Alison was not notified. On her Facebook page, Alison wrote: “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.'”.

Documenting her experience in her book “I Have Life” and now in a film, “Alison,” released in August this year, she has detailed her harrowing ordeal and remarkable survival. Alison has also worked tirelessly, speaking to hundreds of people, motivating others by explaining how attitude, belief, and choice enabled her to survive.

Alison was presented with the prestigious Rotarian Paul Harris Award for Courage Beyond the Norm. In the same year, she became the first recipient of Femina magazine’s Woman of Courage award and was also recognised as Port Elizabeth’s Citizen of the Year.

Following the film’s release, Alison said: “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 commitments, Alison maintains that her most important role is being a single mother to her two sons. In honour of her steadfast commitment to inspiring individuals to overcome their circumstances, confront life’s obstacles, and maintain strength through hardship, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University is delighted to present Alison Botha with the Council Prestige Award.