On Valentine’s Day and the day activists around the world are protesting Violence Against Women, authorities are charging a disabled Olympic hero with the murder of his model girlfriend in a domestic dispute. And police are knocking down earlier reports that Oscar Pistorius, known as the “Blade Runner”, tragically mistook Reena Steenkamp for a burglar.
The couple has been together only for a few months. Investigators recovered a 9-mm handgun from the scene. Steenkamp had been shot 4 times in the head and hand
Steenkemp was the South African face of Avon Cosmetics and a noted fashion model who graced runways and magazine covers. But the beauty was brainy as well; she graduated with a law degree from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in her hometown of Port Elizabeth before changing career paths. She as also scheduled to appear on a South African TV reality show.
Pistorius inspired and annoyed at the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. His legs below his knees were amputated when he was an infant because of a birth defect. Pistorius compensated with curved, carbon-fiber “blades” in place of feet. He became the first amputee runner to compete at the Olympics, qualifying in the 400 metres race although failing to earn a medal. In the Paralympics, he set off controversy by complaining about the prosthetic feet of a Brazilian rival. He eventually won a Gold Medal in the 400m Paralympic event.