Free One Tragic Night by Mandy Wiener

definitely think there was like a bit of a spark, but I know for a fact that she wasn’t looking for anything. They saw each other for a few months and I think eventually they said, “Are we taking this to the next level or aren’t we?”’ explains Sam.
    But iMessages between Reeva and a friend tell a slightly different story – one of a young woman confused and unsure of where she stood with the rugby star. On 30 October 2012 a friend said in an iMessage that she had asked Hougaard what was happening between him and Reeva: ‘So he gave me a weird look and his reply was that you guys are only friends. He emphasised the friends part … I think just from this response I can tell he doesn’t want a committed relationship sister … He told him if that is the case, then he MUST tell you. He cannot hold you on a line. It is not fair to you and I do not want to see either one of you hurt from this … you are GOOD FRIENDS and should not loose each other.’
    The state of affairs with Hougaard was weighing heavily on the model. ‘This thing is making me ill. I just don’t get why 2 people can’t have fun together just cos of who we are it’s fucked up and I don’t care that he’s 24,’ she said as response in an iMessage.
    Messages show that Reeva spoke to Hougaard on the evening of 30 October. She explained how she felt and how they should proceed with their relationship. She discussed this with her friend the next morning.
    â€˜We are just going to be the friends we started off being and that’s amazing because right now we both need that! I had an amazing 4 months of romance and I told him if it wasn’t for him I’d still be stuck in a loveless relationship,’ she said.
    Hougaard declined requests by us to be interviewed about his relationship with Reeva.

    In the meantime, Reeva was on the cusp of local stardom – and yet, according to her closest friend, Samantha, she never became arrogant or big-headed. In a country where being a television continuity presenter or featuring in magazines’ gossip pages is equated with being ‘famous’, Reeva was edging towards her goal.
    â€˜She knew what she was capable of, but she was very, very down to earth. She worked really hard at it. She was always thinking about the next step and what she needed to do and where she wanted to be,’ insists Samantha. ‘It wasn’t just like, “I want to get married and have kids.” Once she started modelling, she realised she had a talent and she could actually go somewhere with it.’
    Gina remembers how Reeva could sense that her future was about to change. A couple of weeks before Reeva’s death, Gina received a message from her predicting a shift. ‘She said to me, “Gi, our lives are about to change, I can feel it.” She was excited about life, especially because there was so much that was about to happen for her and she could feel it. She had just joined new management andall she could talk about was how excited she was about the new things and the new adventures and the possibilities that were coming along with it. Huge things were happening for her and she was happy about it.’
    Then, in November 2012, Reeva climbed a notch higher on the celebrity ladder when she was selected to feature in a local reality TV show called
Tropika Island of Treasure.
The series, filmed on location in Jamaica, sees celebrities and ordinary people compete in remote, exotic locations in a variety of daily challenges to win R1 million.
    Samantha says this was the direction Reeva was looking towards. ‘She was really keen on getting into TV presenting, I think
Top Billing
would have been a goal for her. Especially after she did
Tropika Island.
That was good exposure for her.’
    Local celebrity guru Jennifer Su told
City Press
newspaper that the last time she saw Reeva, they had spoken about her plans for the future: