Wife and lover planned a hit against husband, aunt tells court

Three months before the brutal murder of a Durban man Mark Buttle, a plan had been hatched by his estranged wife Analidia Bella Dosantos and her lover to have him killed.

Dosantos and Teagan Brown, who died two months ago, attempted to enlist Brown’s aunt to find them a hitmen.

This was the chilling testimony of Shamilla Williams, who told the court her niece, Brown, was in a relationship with Dosantos. 

Dosantos is charged alongside Charmaine Khumalo for Buttle’s murder on February 26 2018. Brown, who was also an accused, died two months ago after an illness.

The pair, who are out on bail, face a number of charges including theft and defeating the ends of justice.

Williams recalled how she was introduced to Dosantos during a family function in Newlands East. The visit came at the time when she was trying to rekindle her relationship with Teagan’s mother Candy who they had a history of falling out with.

However, Williams remembers being unwell on the day as she had an abscess which had forced her to take painkillers.

“I went to one of the bedrooms to lie down. While in there Teagan and Bella entered the bedroom. But I can’t remember which of the two asked me if I knew of any hitmen. This had left me shocked. Why would she ask me that?” said Williams.

She recalled how Dosantos spoke about a life insurance policy on her husband.

“I did not know her husband. I was shocked and told Teagan to leave the room,” said Williams.

A few days later she accompanied her niece to Buttle’s home in Avoca Hills where they met Dosantos.

“While sitting in the house they again asked me if I knew any hitmen,” said Williams.

Asked by the prosecutor Khatija Essack why they had specifically approached her about the hitmen, Williams suspected that this was because her brother had been jailed for murder previously.

“They wanted my brother’s number and I refused,” said Williams.

This was to be Williams’s last encounter with the two lovers before she heard about Buttle’s murder through a friend.

Williams later gave a statement to the police on August 2018.

She said at the time Brown was 21 years old and described her as a quiet woman.

Earlier in the day Buttle’s friend Kementhia Barron told the court that he met Dosantos while she worked as restaurant waitress in Randburg.

“He [Buttle] had told us that he had developed feelings for her. This shifted from being friends to lovers,” said Barron.

He later proposed to her and Dosantos’s daughter from a previous relationship came to live with them.

She was living in Mozambique at the time. Buttle adopted the child.

Sometime later Dosantos fell pregnant with Buttle’s child Gabriella.

During the honeymoon stages of their relationship, Buttle had “pulled back” from his friends.

“He seemed happy in his relationship and later relocated to Durban,” said Barron.

However, she said the relationship soured.

She told the court she met Buttle at a restaurant in uMhlanga without Dosantos.

“During that outing Mark appeared to be depressed and horrified. He was really unhappy,” said Barron.

On Monday, police officer Sgt Owen Milton recalled how he had found Buttle’s body in a new Hyundai i10 in February 2018.

“Upon inspecting the vehicle I could see that a male person seated on the back seat was dead,” said Milton.

He said the vehicle did not have a key in its ignition nor did it have number plates.

“The vehicle looked neat. There were no visible scratches or dents in the car,” said Milton.

He also discovered a bottle of alcohol in the car.

“His body was stiff. Blood was all over it, some had clotted making it difficult for me to see the wounds. He had no shirt but had a shoelace-like string on his waist,” said Milton.

The state alleges that Dosantos plotted to murder her husband to inherit the life insurance. 

In 2017, the couple’s marriage disintegrated resulting in Do Santos leaving the marital home to live with her lover, Brown. 

On the evening of February 25 2018, Dosantos, armed with a knife, arranged to take Buttle out to the park for a picnic on the pretext of trying to resolving their differences.

They went to an open area in Ferndale in Buttle’s white Hyundai i10 where it is alleged that Dosantos stabbed him in the neck.

She then met with Khumalo and Brown and cleaned herself up.

After parting ways with Khumalo and Brown, Dosantos went to a nearby residence where she reported that she and Buttle had been victims of a hijacking.

The case is continuing.

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