Latest news with #April19
The Herald
21-05-2025
- The Herald
State claims boyfriend was intoxicated when Vanessa's body was found
Murder accused Rob Evans was reportedly so drunk the morning his girlfriend's battered and bruised body was discovered in his holiday home, that he was unable to recall what had happened. The state claims further that he gave at least three conflicting versions of events. Prosecutor Bianca Burger said that in his official statement to the police, Evans had relayed how he and Vanessa van Rensburg had arrived at his Oyster Bay holiday house at about 4pm on April 19. A couple of hours later, a friend, Mike McAfee, invited them to join a braai at the home of Keith Belling. McAfee left his bakkie at Evans' house and all three headed to the braai in Evans' vehicle. Reading from Evans' statement, Burger continued: 'On arrival at Keith's house we were invited to join their braai and we had some drinks with them. 'Vanessa left early ... before me ... and I later went home. 'I had too much to drink. I cannot recall how I got to the house, whether I drove or not, but I know I drove my bakkie [to the braai] and Mike left his bakkie in my yard.' Back at the holiday home, he said, he could not recall seeing Van Rensburg there. 'I went inside to make a fire as we had decided to braai. 'I could not keep track of time but when I got out of the braai area to the sitting area, I saw Vanessa lying on the floor. 'I went to her to see if she was OK, but it seemed there was no life in her any more. 'I then went down to Keith's house to seek help and they came back with me.' In the second version, Burger said, Evans told a police officer who arrived at the scene at 1.45am that he had gone to a braai at Belling's house, returned home, and did not see Van Rensburg's body until later, when he emerged from the braai area after attempting to make a fire. In the third version, at 2.35am, he allegedly phoned Van Rensburg's young children's paternal grandmother, crying, and eventually told her that Van Rensburg was dead. When the woman asked what had happened, Evans allegedly said that they had been braaiing for two hours at his house and that he later stumbled upon her body. He said her lips were blue and he tried to resuscitate her for two hours. Burger said she had also obtained a statement from a local fisherman, only identified as Mr Taljaard. She said Taljaard alleged that he drove past Evans' house at about 8.30pm and that he had heard shouting and fighting coming from the property. When he drove past again later that night, at about 10pm, Evans was allegedly sitting on a bench outside his house and drinking. He said he could not see Van Rensburg. The bail application continues on Friday. Evans remains in custody. The Herald
Boston Globe
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
1775 and all that
The Concord Museum has a home-field advantage with 'Whose Revolution.' The museum is a mile from the Old North Bridge, where 'Whose Revolution' aims to give an overview of how life was lived during the revolutionary era. (Focusing on the battles is an ongoing exhibition, 'April 19, 1775,' and it's quite well done.) 'Whose Revolution' draws on material culture, fine art, political and social history. There are 55 items on display, ranging from three early John Singleton Copley portraits and a copy of Advertisement Twivel (woodworking tool), 18th century. Gavin Ashworth A selection of teapots does double duty: the consumption of tea being such a part of daily life in the 13 colonies and the attempt to tax it being such a cause of political conflict. Look to the right of the display of teapots and other ceramics and you see two pieces of paper bearing designs of alluring delicacy. Attractive enough to be art prints, they're British tax stamps: as in Advertisement That possessive pronoun at the beginning of the show's title tells you that its chief concern is with people and their relationship to the revolution. Those people were not all male or all white or even all patriots. (The 18th-century mansions along Brattle Street, in Cambridge, are known as Tory Row for a reason.) The show includes a first edition of Phillis Wheatley's poetry, four silhouettes commissioned to accompany brief accounts of four Black people living here during this period, and a video of Elizabeth Solomon, a Ponkapoag elder, discussing the relationship of Indigenous peoples to this land that the colonists had taken away. The irony of colonizers of others' land rebelling against tyranny imposed upon them is hard to miss. Pocket pistol belonging to Paul Revere. Massachusetts Historical Society/From the collections of the Mass Perhaps when Ralph Waldo Emerson (a Concord resident) used 'shot heard round the world' for the fighting at the Old North Bridge rather than the confrontation on what we now know as Lexington Battle Green he justified it as continuing a tradition of Revolutionary geographical inaccuracy: specifically, the Battle of Bunker Hill, in Charlestown, actually took place on Breed's Hill, also in Charlestown. An expertly done multimedia presentation on the battle is the centerpiece of '1775: Rebels, Rights & Revolution,' which runs at the Massachusetts Historical Society through Dec. 18. The MHS's Carol Knauff curated. Advertisement Permit to pass through British lines, May 1775. Massachusetts Historical Society/From the collection of the Massa The historical society's holdings being as rich as they are, many of the more than 50 items on display are memorable: from a pocket pistol belonging to Revere (did he take it with him on his midnight ride?) to a cannonball recovered from the fighting at Lexington to not one, not two, but three powder horns. Most of the items, though, are less physically substantial — letters, journals, even a permit to pass through British lines in May 1775 — and they are no less memorable. They're also a reminder of how text predominated over image in that culture, of how much words and ideas mattered in making the revolution. Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville and Robert Sayer, "A new map of North America," 1763. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library 'Terrains of Independence,' at the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library consists of a dozen maps — 13, if you count the one of Boston and Charlestown etched on a powder horn. The exhibition is up until next March, which marks the 250th anniversary of Evacuation Day. All of the maps repay study, and some are quite beautiful. Curated by Suffolk University's Kathryn Lasdow and the Leventhal Center's Garrett Dash Nelson, 'Terrains' is organized in terms of five 'scales': empire, region, nation, city, and landmark. The wall texts are both informative and insightful. They point out, for example, how much the shape of Boston (practically an island, before all the filling in of the 19th century) lent itself to clashes with the military; and, as further fuel for revolutionary fire, that 1 in 3 inhabitants of the city in 1768 were British soldiers. Paul Revere, copper engraving plate of the occupation of Boston, 1768. Commonwealth Museum 'Upon Such Ground: Massachusetts and the Birth of a Revolution,' at the Commonwealth Museum, has a well-chosen closing date: June 17, Bunker Hill Day, another 250th anniversary. Among the more notable artifacts are a drum used at that battle (its size is such that one hopes it was not a little drummer boy who carried it), a sword belonging to the British major who gave the order to fire at the Old North Bridge, and a muster book of volunteers from Waltham who fought on April 19. The reminder its roster gives of how extensive and, for lack of a better word, democratic the revolutionary cause was is deeply moving. Advertisement The Commonwealth Museum doesn't charge admission. Neither does the BPL, of course, nor the historical society. 'Free' takes on an added meaning in this case, though, one with a relevance to the 250th and what it entails that's greater than all the many items in these four fine exhibitions put together: that would be 'free' as in freedom. Because the museum is run by the Massachusetts secretary of state's office, visitors can also register to vote at the exhibition. Museums love interactive displays, as they should: Museumgoers love them, too. But it's hard to top a voter-registration form for interactivity. Powder horns and swords and maps are excellent things. They illustrate the past. Ballots are even better. They help determine the future. WHOSE REVOLUTION At Concord Museum, 53 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord, through Sept. 1. 1775: REBELS, RIGHTS & REVOLUTION At Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston St., through Dec. 19. TERRAINS OF INDEPENDENCE At Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library, Copley Square, through March 2026. 617-859-2387, UPON SUCH GROUND: Massachusetts and the Birth of a Revolution Advertisement At Commonwealth Museum, 220 Morrissey Boulevard, through June 17. 617-727-9268, Mark Feeney can be reached at
