PHOTO: Dr. Mirah Wilks, Phsycologist brutally murdered in south Africa Photo. Source: Facebook.
According to the Daily Mail reports, the renowned Hate Crime psychologist has been brutally killed in her Johannesburg home in South Africa by intruders who waited for her husband to go out before breaking inn and slitting her throat.
Renowned Dr Mirah Wilks, 69, a former Australian resident living in South Africa who is popularly known for research intoHate Crimes, trauma and Violence, was stabbed at least twelve times and her throat slit by the intruders who only took two laptops and one mobile phone. The gang waited for her retired husband Mr. Frank Wilks to leave that Sunday to the local synagogue for worship before they broke in to her house.
Reports say that the gang climbed up on to the roof and removed tiles and dropped down in to her home and attacked the 69 year old, by stabbing her at least twelve times on the chest and slitting her throat.
Her retired husband, who is 72 years old, returned home at night from the synagogue and found his wife soaked in blood lying on the floor of their home.
According to the daily mail, the South African police have launched an urgent man-hut for the killers who broke into Wilk’s house and stabbed her brutally to death.
South African police spokesman, Colonel Lungelo Dlamini told the publication “it was used the fatal assault of the victim who was found by her husband when he returned home from church, and we are appealing for witnesses to come forward”.The South African police say they believed that the men had waited for the husband to step out before breaking through the ceiling to perhaps get roud the security doors and windows.
The police spokes man also added that “A case is of murder is being investigated and the post mortem will determine the cause of the death, but a sharp was object was used”.
In a statement, her family said,
“It is with deep sadness that we confirm the of passing of Mirah Wilks who was a victim of a violent attack that took place in her home I Sandown Estate on the morning of Sunday October 6th, 2019. Mirah was stabbed by a solitary intruder who broke into the house through the roof and a struggle ensued in a passageway close to her study. The intruder fled the property with two laptops and one cell phone. Police are investigating the matter and we would like to provide them with support to conclude the case”.
Dr. Wilks is a former art teacher who turned counselor, and qualified last year with a PhD in The crimes from the University of South Africa after spending so many years in South Africa as a top psychologist. She was a well respected scholar, who had gained degrees at the University of Queensland in Australia and the University of Pennsylvania in the USA and was working at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg when she was murdered.
She was a mother of two children, a daughter and a son, Tarryn and Brett respectively, with her husband Frank Wilks in Melbourne, Victoria before she moved to south Africa with her family.
She had recently stated research in resilience as a means of adaptation and survival with a special focus on the South African lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
The psychological society of south Africa shared a poignant letter Dr. Wilks had shared with her students describing herself as a childhood a polio survivor and jewish refugee who battled cancer.
“Everyone has, Dr. Wilks wrote. I have always wondered how I survived, rebounded and found new pathways to health. What was the source of my ability to regenerate? Where was my source of hope and positivity? Did my attitude on life and personality have anything to do with my experience of resilience in adversity?
The society added: And hopeful and positive, she was.
