 Hannah Cornelius was a 21-year-old woman from South Africa who was spending the evening out with her friend, Cheslin. As they were sitting in their car, talking about the great time that they just had together, four unidentified men approached their vehicle and kidnapped them. Only one of the two friends would make it out alive. Detectives soon uncovered a crime scene unlike anything they had witnessed before. So I want to be clear. This case is by far the worst, most heartbreaking and most disgusting case I've ever covered. And I'm not saying that to hype up the video, I say that as a warning. This case is just awful from beginning to end, so much so that I strongly considered scrapping the whole thing and just covering a different story. But the truth is, no matter how tragic and how haunting these cases are, the victim's stories deserve to be heard, and Hannah deserves to be remembered. With that said, this is the story of Hannah Cornelius. Hannah Cornelius lived in Stellenbosch, South Africa but was born in Western Cape. From a young age, Hannah was always a very happy young girl. She was very close with her family, most of whom appeared to have lived in Cape Town about 45 minutes away from Stellenbosch. Anyone with eyes understands that Hannah was a beautiful young woman and her parents, Willem and Anna, were incredibly proud of her. She'd done great in school as a teenager and was destined for success. According to one source, Hannah was doing remarkably well in her university studies, getting an 85% on her most recent final, studying for a BA in humanities, a field that's predominantly focused on human history and literature. Outside of her schooling, Hannah was an excellent piano player and always dreamed of traveling to Paris to see all the historic sites that the town is to offer. She was also an advocate for animal welfare, but I don't know to what extent she was involved in the more recent animal rights movements. Hannah came from a well-established family, with her father being the former magistrate of Simon's town. While her childhood appears to have been great, all things considered, she did have a somewhat difficult whole life at times due to her younger brother who suffers from severe autism. While many people with autism are able to still live relatively normal lives, her brother wasn't so lucky, as he requires round-the-clock care and has more recently been sent to an assisted living facility. Hannah had a number of friends who looked up to her and were there for her whenever she needed them. One of these friends was Cheslin Marsh. The interesting thing about Cheslin is that we don't really know how close he and Hannah were, though. I've seen various reports about the two, with some saying that the two were in a relationship, while others say that they were just friends. In fact, one report claims that the two had only met the night before the crime. Regardless of their relationship status, though, it seems safe to assume that these two had a very tight bond with one another, and Cheslin cared for Hannah deeply. As fate would have it, Cheslin was with Hannah on the evening that things went terribly wrong for her. What was supposed to be a relaxing, fun night out in town ended in what could very easily be described as one of the most gruesome heinous crimes in Stellenbosch's history. It was May 27, 2017. Hannah and Cheslin had spent the night out drinking and dancing and had returned to their home at around 3.30 am that Saturday morning. CCTV footage shows the two pulling into a parking lot in Hannah's blue and white Volkswagen Golf. After pulling into the lot, Hannah and Cheslin spent a fair amount of time chatting with one another, waiting to head inside to get some much-needed rest. As they're sitting in their car, though, four men walk by. Four men who were later identified as suspects in this case. These four men were on their way to a nearby apartment when they happened to walk by Hannah's car, noticing that two people were inside. It was at this point that their plans for the evening changed. The four men approached the car and without hesitation began to attack both Cheslin and Hannah. Police say that Cheslin was forced into the back seat of the car while Hannah was pinned in between the front two seats. After a few moments, CCTV footage shows Hannah's car driving away after one of the four men had fled the scene, catching back up with the gang later on. At 4.30 am, the car is seen pulling into a gas station parking lot. This was about an hour after the initial altercation, even though the footage was taken only a few miles away. By this point, Cheslin had been forced into the back of the car, with Hannah being restrained in the front passenger seat. As far as we know, this was the last time Hannah would be seen alive. One of the suspects soon exits the vehicle and enters the gas station, heading toward an ATM. He had stolen Cheslin's bank card and attempted to make a withdrawal from his account, but Cheslin had given him the wrong pin number, meaning the suspect left empty-handed. The man was obviously angry about this and vowed that Cheslin would be punished later on. The men drove away from the gas station and police ultimately lost track of them for several hours. One of the suspects would later reveal to officers that Hannah remained quiet and stoic for the remainder of the drive. She didn't say one word to any of the men, nor did she obey any of their demands. She simply stared straight in front of her, silent for the remainder of the drive. It would be around 5.30 am to 6.00 am that the men pulled over into a secluded area, with Cheslin saying that it was still dark out at this point. He had been stowed away in the back of the car for nearly two hours by now, but the perpetrators soon opened the hatch and forced him out of the car, telling him to lay down on the ground and place his head onto a brick. We don't know for sure what took place next, but Cheslin says that the last thing he remembers is closing his eyes and praying, begging for forgiveness for whatever he had done to end up in this situation. He mentioned seeing two of the men holding bricks in their hands, but he has no idea what they did with these bricks, though I think it's pretty safe to assume what took place. The criminals believed that Cheslin had lost his life, so they abandoned him and drove Hannah several more miles away to an even more secluded location, this time in a patch of woods located just behind a paintball venue. Hannah pleaded with her attackers, offering to allow them to do whatever they wanted to her, only asking in return that she be allowed to leave with her life. The suspects say that despite her pleas and bargaining, she fought back every step of the way and wasn't going to make things easy for them. She refused to willingly exit the car once they arrived at the paintball venue, with the men prying her from the hatch before tossing her into the woods and taking advantage of her time and time and time again. After the men were done, they put her back inside of the car and drove her several more miles out to an area of secluded farmland. By this point, it's safe to assume that the sun had begun to rise, so the men needed to act quickly if they wanted to get away with their crimes without getting caught with Hannah's stolen car. Once they arrived on the farm, they pulled Hannah from the car, then attempted to enter suffering using a knife. When that began to take too long, the men forced her to lay on the ground all the while she was begging with her every breath for the men to just leave her be. It was at this point that the men picked up an 80 pound rock from nearby and dropped it on top of Hannah, bringing the worst night of her life to a tragic, horrific conclusion. The gang then abandoned the crime scene, but their night of terror still wasn't over. Early the next morning, the men arrived back in town and chased down a woman who was walking to work. They ran after her until she ultimately tripped and fell, stealing her purse and other belongings and leaving her there, thankfully not going any further than just stealing her possessions. Unfortunately, a third woman wouldn't be quite so lucky. A few miles away, a third victim was kidnapped and robbed, but we don't know the extent of her injuries. As best I can tell, she seems to have gotten away without anything serious happening, but it's safe to assume that her life would never be the same after this, regardless of her making it out alive and with her dignity intact. By the following day around 2 p.m., only two of the four men remained with Hannah's car. The men had been traveling through Stelenbosch once again. By this point, it appears as though police had been on the lookout for Hannah's missing car and an undercover agent happened to notice the car pass by with two unidentified men inside of it. The undercover cop called for backup and before long, a high-speed chase ensued. The men drove police dozens of miles down the road to yet another area of farmland where they would abandon the car near a field and take off on foot. Thankfully, the two men were captured by officers and they were taken in for questioning. By the following morning, Cheslin had finally woken after being so badly beaten by his kidnappers. He somehow survived the horrific encounter with these men, but he certainly left the scene of the crime with more than a few scars and an unbelievable story to tell investigators. As he woke up, he headed toward a nearby series of houses and began begging for help. When he was taken to the hospital, doctors revealed that he by all accounts shouldn't even be alive. He ended up going deaf in one ear, but as far as I can tell, he didn't have any other lasting effects from the attack and appears to have made a full recovery. I can't confirm this with any certainty, but he seems to be doing okay these days. Cheslin obviously went to the police and reported what had happened. Thankfully, police had already picked up two of the perpetrators and it didn't take long for the suspects to begin to turn on one another, each of them blaming the others for the crimes. At this point, it doesn't appear that police knew that Hannah had lost her life, but they would soon uncover all of the gruesome details of that evening and what these four men had truly been up to that night. Now, unfortunately, this is where the case gets a bit muddied. Every source I've found seems to tell a different side of the story and most of these stories don't align with one another. All I can say for sure is that the four men continually blamed one another for the crimes with each of the men pleading their innocence at trial. In fact, two of these monsters confessed to certain aspects of the crime during their interrogation, but when it came time for their trial, they claimed they weren't guilty. I'm not sure how they thought they were going to get out of this after being filmed during their confession, with this confession being used against them as evidence in court. They also had Cheslin as an eyewitness testifying against them, but regardless, they all claimed that they had nothing to do with the crime. Thankfully though, Cheslin managed to heal enough in time for the trial that he was able to tell the judge and jury everything that he had gone through, though he appears to have been nearly suffering a panic attack throughout the entirety of his testimony. The only problem is that he wasn't around for Hannah's final moments, so he couldn't help out much in that aspect of the case. But in reality, it doesn't seem like police needed much help in pinning these men for the crime. After all, their DNA and fingerprints were all over Hannah's car. Their DNA was found across every inch of the crime scene and two of the men were caught red-handed in Hannah's vehicle. This case was about as open and shut as it could possibly be, but if that weren't enough, there were also the two additional victims that the suspects attacked the following morning. I can't wrap my head around how any of these four men thought they would get away with even one of their crimes. Someone had witnessed almost every single aspect of the case, obviously excluding what took place in the woods that night, but the DNA that was found at the scene painted a very clear picture for detectives. At trial, three of the four men who took Hannah's life were given a life sentence. One of the men got away with a slightly lesser sentence because there was no evidence tying him to Hannah's final moments. In total, the men received a combined 358 years in prison with the crowd of people who attended the hearing cheering as their sentences were read. But honestly, one of the worst aspects of this case is how the suspects acted during the trial. All throughout their time in the stand, they were making faces of the victim's family, telling jokes to one another, laughing and smiling and throwing hand gestures at the crowd of people. One of the men even made suggestive remarks toward the judge who was reading the gang's sentence. These four men were all the lowest of low, true monsters that deserve everything they'll get behind bars, but the story isn't over just yet. As I'm sure all of you know, one of the biggest crimes in a situation like this, believe it or not, isn't actually what happened to the victim. It's what happens to the victim's loved ones who were left to face another day without the people they hold closest. The real tragedy is the families and friends of those who were taken away far too soon and now have to figure out how their world is gonna keep turning when such a pillar in their lives has been stolen. You may have heard the phrase, the mercy of life is that it just keeps going, but for some people, it doesn't. Hannah's mother, Anna, lost her way after Hannah lost her life. Hannah was so deeply involved in her parents' lives that for Anna, it was just too much to bear. Anna had a remarkably difficult time coming to terms with the loss of her daughter. She went through all of the daily motions, but nothing mattered anymore. In the words of Hannah's father, when Hannah died, so did our family. The following year in 2018, Anna would head out on one of her daily swimming exercises, but on this particular day, she didn't make her usual rounds. She didn't make her usual laps around the ocean. Instead, she jumped into the water, swam into the distance and just kept swimming. Her body was found washed ashore several days later. The pain of her daughter's loss was too much to bear, and Anna would ultimately lose her battle with depression. Anna's father would later speak about the loss of his wife and daughter, saying, me and my son, we're not a family. We're the survivors who live in the ruins of what once was. If all of this weren't bad enough, Willem would soon be diagnosed with cancer. He fought a short battle before the illness overtook him and he too lost his life. This left behind Hannah's brother, who's now being cared for in an assisted living facility due to severe autism. It's very likely her brother's unable to comprehend what his family went through and why his parents and sister no longer come to see him. This, this is the true tragedy in cases like this. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you wanna see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. If you'd like to help support the channel, the best way you can do that is simply by leaving a comment below, any comment at all. It helps the channel more than you may realize. If you wanna help out financially, you can do that by clicking that blue join button below or by picking up a True Crime Stories mug from tieknots.com. But with that, my name is Ty Knots and I'll catch you guys in the next video.