Case overview
Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate, was shot dead in the early hours of February 14, 2013, inside the Pretoria home of Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Pistorius fired four hollow-point bullets through a locked bathroom door, three of which struck Steenkamp, killing her. He was later convicted of murder after an appeals court overturned an initial culpable homicide verdict.
The hours before the shooting
Steenkamp arrived at Pistorius’s Silver Woods estate on the afternoon of February 13, 2013. The couple had been dating for approximately three months. According to Pistorius’s later testimony, they spent a quiet evening together, eating dinner and watching television before going to bed around 10 p.m.
No witnesses observed the couple after they entered the residence. Phone records later entered into evidence showed that Steenkamp’s last known activity on her phone was at 10:00 p.m. the night before she died.
What happened at 3:00 a.m.
At approximately 3:12 a.m. on February 14, neighbors reported hearing shouting followed by gunshots. Pistorius called estate security at 3:19 a.m., stating that he had shot Steenkamp by mistake, believing her to be an intruder. He then called paramedics and a close friend, who arrived to find Pistorius carrying Steenkamp’s body downstairs.
Steenkamp had been shot through the bathroom door while inside a small enclosed toilet area within the master bathroom. The door remained locked from the inside. Pistorius told responding officers that he used a cricket bat to break down the door after realizing Steenkamp was inside.
She was declared dead at the scene. The autopsy confirmed three gunshot wounds: one to the head, one to the arm, and one to the hip. The head wound was identified as the fatal injury.
Pistorius’s account
Pistorius maintained throughout the investigation and trial that he believed an intruder had entered the house through the bathroom window. He stated that he woke in the night, heard a noise, retrieved his 9mm pistol from beneath the bed, and moved toward the bathroom on his stumps without his prosthetic legs. He said he fired four shots through the closed door in what he described as a moment of terror and self-defense, only realizing afterward that Steenkamp was not in bed.
He testified that he did not intend to kill anyone and did not know Steenkamp was behind the door when he fired. His defense argued the shooting was a tragic accident rooted in his heightened sense of vulnerability due to his disability and South Africa’s high crime rate.
What investigators documented
Police collected evidence from the scene that contradicted elements of Pistorius’s narrative. Forensic investigators noted that the trajectory of the bullets suggested Pistorius was wearing his prosthetic legs when he fired, not moving on his stumps as he claimed. The height and angle of the entry points in the door supported this conclusion.
A cricket bat found at the scene showed signs of use consistent with breaking the door, but investigators questioned the sequence of events. Ballistics experts testified that marks on the door indicated the bat strikes occurred after the gunshots, not before.
Steenkamp’s bladder was empty, and her stomach contents were consistent with having eaten hours earlier. Investigators also noted that her jeans and overnight bag were found inside the locked toilet room, raising questions about why she would have taken them there.
Phone records showed no sign of a call or communication that would explain her presence in the bathroom. No evidence of forced entry or an intruder was found anywhere in the residence.
The neighbor testimony
Multiple neighbors testified during the trial that they heard a woman screaming before and between gunshots. Several witnesses described hearing distinct, escalating arguments and cries for help in a female voice. The defense countered that the witnesses had actually heard Pistorius screaming in a high-pitched tone after discovering what he had done.
Acoustic and timeline expert testimony became a focal point of the trial. The state argued that the screams indicated Steenkamp was awake, aware, and in distress before the shooting, contradicting the claim that Pistorius did not know she was behind the door.
The trial and initial verdict
Pistorius was arrested on February 14, 2013, and charged with murder. His trial began in March 2014 in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. The proceedings were broadcast live and attracted international attention.
Judge Thokozile Masipa delivered a verdict in September 2014, convicting Pistorius of culpable homicide rather than murder. She ruled that while Pistorius had acted negligently, the state had not proven beyond reasonable doubt that he intended to kill Steenkamp. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
The National Prosecuting Authority appealed the verdict, arguing that the legal standard for intent had been misapplied.
The appeals court reversal
In December 2015, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the culpable homicide conviction and found Pistorius guilty of murder. The court ruled that intent could be inferred from his actions: Pistorius knew someone was behind the door, fired a lethal weapon multiple times in a confined space, and could reasonably foresee that death would result.
The ruling stated that it was irrelevant whether Pistorius knew the specific identity of the person behind the door. Under South African law, the principle of dolus eventualis applied: he foresaw the possibility of killing whoever was there and proceeded anyway.
Pistorius was resentenced in July 2016 to six years in prison. The state appealed again, arguing the sentence was too lenient. In November 2017, the sentence was increased to 13 years and five months.
Steenkamp’s final messages
Text messages recovered from Steenkamp’s phone were introduced as evidence during the trial. Several messages sent in the weeks before her death expressed concern about Pistorius’s temper and behavior. In one exchange, she wrote that she was sometimes scared of him and felt he snapped at her unfairly.
The messages did not provide direct evidence about the night of the shooting, but they contradicted the defense portrayal of a stable, loving relationship without tension.
The question that remains
Despite the convictions and appeals, debate continues over what happened in the moments before Steenkamp’s death. The locked door, the neighbor testimony, and the absence of any corroborating evidence for Pistorius’s intruder theory leave a question central to the case: whether the shooting was the result of paranoia and recklessness, or whether it followed an argument that ended in homicide.
Pistorius was granted parole in January 2024 after serving more than half of his sentence. Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, opposed his release and stated publicly that she did not believe he had told the truth about what happened that night.
Where to look next
- Documentary: “Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer” (ESPN)
- Documentary: “The Trials of Oscar Pistorius” (BBC)
- Book: “Oscar Pistorius: Behind the Door” by Barry Bateman and Mandy Wiener
