A gruesome murder took place on this spot known as Grafsteenvlakte in 1889.
This lonely gravestone marks the spot where Mattys Andreas De Beer was murdered. It is about 15 km outside present day Prince Albert in the Karoo on the Leeu Ghamka road., South Africa.
DeBeer was a road inspector and had set up camp for the night. Nobody knows quite what happened but the story is that he was brutally murdered having his head decapitated by his assistant when they were camped at the spot, now marked by the gravestone, for the night. His headless corpse was then dragged onto the wagon and strapped in an upright position in the drivers seat. The murderer, with a sharp slap to the horses thigh, sent the wagon and its passenger in the direction of Prince Albert, a route the horses were used to travelling.
Back in Prince Albert, Susanna De Beer the wife of Mattys was becoming increasingly worried as to why DeBeer was so late. When she finally heard the clip clop of the horses hooves on the cobbled stones she rushed out to meet him relieved that he had finally returned home.
She called out a greeting only to get no answer. As she approached the wagon puzzled as to why Mattys didn't answer she was shocked by the grizzly sight.
Translated Afrikaans/Dutch inscription on the gravestone
One
Memorial
for
M. A. De Beer
MURDERED
on 11 Jan 1889
God preserve this stone
For everyone to witness
Some background to the photograph.
It was shot with a Canon 5D when visiting Prince Albert in 2009. As the gravestone is on a private farm not many people know about it. We were taken there by a local history specialist. I used the programme Lightroom to desaturate the colours and darkening the sky to create a more 'creepy' feeling. A touch of vignetting was used on the corners.