Jennifer Ann Wright

Jennifer Wright (1976 - 2013)

Brief overview:

Jennifer (37), was hit over the head with a 1,5 litre wine bottle as she was cashing up the day’s takings at the Super Lion bottle store in Mountain View, where she worked as a temporary teller.

She died at the scene as a result of head injuries and skull fractures which caused fatal bleeding.

The perpetrator Jean Smit, said he bought a litre of brandy, which he drank. He then visited his friend in Mountain View and they drank more and used the drug cat. The pair decided to go to the bottle store. They were asked to leave the store when it closed, as Wright wanted to cash up. Smit jammed the lock with a box of matches. His plan was to return to rob the shop.

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Street/Suburb
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
• Items Stolen
  • Smit admitted breaking into the liquor store that night with the intention of committing a robbery and robbing Wright of R7 300, liquor, cigarettes and the keys to the shop and safe.
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
  • Smit was arrested shortly after the murder while hiding in the club house of a nearby tennis club.
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
  • Jean Pierre Smit (25)
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction
  • Smit pleaded guilty to housebreaking with the intent to rob, housebreaking with aggravating circumstances and to murdering his girlfriend, Jennifer Wright.
  • Psychiatrists testified the court should take into consideration that Smit was probably predisposed to abusing substances due to the genes he inherited from his biological parents. His adoptive parents, however, doted on him and tried their best to keep him on the straight and narrow path.
  • Smit was sentenced in the High Court in Pretoria to 20 years effective imprisonment.

Additional Biographical Information:

Links to Media articles:

• https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/pretoria-news/20141210/281...
• https://archive.ph/5JHdY
• https://archive.ph/0O7eR
• https://archive.ph/SD4p2
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jan 7 2023, 6:33:16 UTC