WHEN Hannah Cornelius was carjacked at knifepoint by an evil gang she had no idea that she was coming face to face with her killers who would put her through an 11-hour ordeal.

The 21-year-old was in a secluded spot in Stellenbosch, South Africa with her friend Cheslin Marsh, 22, when the pair were taken hostage by a gang who encircled her car like a "pack of wolves".

The friends were driven around for hours by the robbers before Cheslin was beaten nearly to death and dumped.

Hannah was then repeated gang-raped and fatally stabbed in the neck before a rock was dropped on her head on the night of May 27, 2017.

The horrific case went on to shock the world when the smirking killers Nashville Julius, 29, Geraldo Parsons, 27, Eben Van Niekerk, 28, and Vernon Witbooi, appeared in the dock.

The men sneered in court, one stuck out his tongue and they made a joke of their conviction by giving the judge a thumbs up as they were lead away to prison.

Five years on a new documentary – Last Blue Ride on Showmax – has shed light on the events that took place before Hannah's tragic death and how her family struggled to come to terms with losing their much-loved daughter.

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Hannah's mother, Anna, drowned just a year after the student's death as she took her daily swim – her battered body spotted in shallow waters in Cape Town.

Hannah's father Willem said the impact of his daughter's death on the family was “beyond devastating” and said his wife “walked into the ocean and didn't return”.

He added: "I believe our family died with Hannah."

The drowning was ruled a fatal accident but Willem said he did not believe his wife intended to kill herself but lacked the physical or mental strength to deal with the horrifying slaughter of her daughter.

NIGHT OF TERROR

Student Hannah and her friend Cheslin Marsh's terrifying ordeal began when they were carjacked after a night out in May 2017.

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She'd offered to drop Cheslin home and while the pair were parked up a group of four men approached the vehicle – the harrowing moment was caught on CCTV footage.

Armed with a screwdriver and a flick knife, they attacked Hannah and Cheslin as they sat in the car.

Cheslin was forced into the back seat and then into the boot while Hannah was shoved between the two front seats as the car was driven away.

Talking during the new documentary, Cheslin said: "I kept telling her, basically, to stay calm the whole time…everything is going to be okay."

Later CCTV footage showed Hannah in the car as the gang stop at a petrol station to withdraw cash from Cheslin's bank account – but the attacker Witbooi fails to do so when he's given the wrong pin.

During a police interview, Witbooi describes how terrified Hannah didn't talk at all and 'just looked out in front of her'.

The callous killers even offered Hannah a glimmer of hope, telling her they wanted to take them both home – but the student would never see her loved ones again.

STABBED TO DEATH

The gang drove them both to a remote area where Cheslin was beaten with bricks and left for dead as Hannah watched in horror – fearing she would be next.

But Cheslin miraculously survived the attack telling cops he'd closed his eyes and prayed before being knocked out and left in a pool of blood.

He said: "…they were taking me into the bushes…and then they told me I should lay my head on a piece of brick and that's when I realised these people are gonna take my life away.

"And as I was laying on the brick, I closed my eyes and prayed and asked the Lord for forgiveness for whatever I did in this life.

"Because I definitely knew I'm gonna go to another one and I didn't want to go."

Cheslin was left traumatised by the brutal attack and deaf in one ear after regaining consciousness a day later – not knowing Hannah was dead.

In her final moments, Hannah was forced back into the car and driven 12 miles from Stellenbosch to a farm road.

Ibelieve our family died with Hannah

It was there she was stabbed in the neck and a large rock was dropped on her head, crushing her skull, before rapists – Parsons, van Niekerk and Witbooi – left her dead body.

The court heard how Hannah had pleaded with her kidnappers and bravely fought back, saying they could sexually assault her if they spared her life.

Parsons said the group believed they had killed Cheslin and admitted being the first to rape.

He claimed the men planned to leave her on a farm, but she that she had struggled.

According to Times Live, he told the trial: "She didn’t want to climb out of the boot. She was holding on to the car. She started panicking.

“Eben came up and stabbed her."

Speaking at the time of her death, family friend Toni Raphael said she believed Hannah would have tried to comply and empathise with her attackers in a bid to survive.

She said: "She certainly tried to live."

After killing Hannah, the men continued their terrifying crime spree, chasing a woman walking to work in nearby Kraaifontein before stealing her bag and phone.

The group were then arrested following a high-speed police chase after Hannah's car was spotted by undercover cops.

SMIRKING KILLERS

Her remorseless killers were sentenced to a combined 358 years behind bars with three of the four gang members being given life sentences after a trial at Cape Town high court in 2018.

Her heartbroken father Willem admitted during the trial that it had taken him a while to attend the court hearing because he 'didn't want to hear what had happened' to his beloved daughter – who was described as a 'daddy's girl'.

Willem and Anna went on to create the Hannah Cornelius Foundation to help children in their local area get into education and escape violence within their community.

Friend Toni, who went on to become director for the foundation told the Sun Online: "Hannah was never a typical child, teenager or adult.

"She was always unusually compassionate and empathic and deeply moved by the people she encountered, their stories and their struggles.

"The way in which she saw the world and wrestled with her place and purpose therein was paradoxically both mature and innocent. 

"Hannah could be naively carefree and even careless at times. A dreamer. An idealist. Distracted and curious. But not many people saw her struggles and her personal suffering, which she carried bravely and faced fearlessly. 

"Hannah loved completely. Firstly her parents and brother, but also friends and often even strangers. She suspended judgement and sought to know and understand.

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"It's easy to idealise the dead. Especially the young, beautiful and tragically taken. But Hannah really was everything people say she was. And more."

Last Blue Ride is available to watch from 1 April 2022 on African streaming service Showmax.com in the UK, select international markets and sub-Saharan Africa.

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