Tweet calls death of St Stithians teen ‘murder’
A social media post attributed to the brother of a deceased teenager, Cameron Waldeck-Cooks, accuses her boyfriend, Ethan Coetzee, of murder. Police have subsequently upgraded their investigation from an inquest to a murder probe following autopsy results indicating strangulation.
Why it matters
The case illustrates the intersection of social media speculation and formal criminal investigations in high-profile domestic tragedy cases.
A searing account of the deaths of St Stithians schoolgirl Cameron Waldeck-Cooks and her boyfriend Ethan Coetzee a week ago, purportedly written by the girl’s brother, accuses Coetzee of having murdered his 17-year-old sister.
The allegation is made in a post on Instagram and X that bears the name of Cameron’s brother — also called Ethan — but whose authorship has not been confirmed. The post describes how Waldeck-Cooks once regarded Coetzee as a brother and describes the pain of seeing his sister’s image published alongside his.
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The post claims Cameron was strangled and suffered several other injuries. “She was murdered by Ethan Coetzee,” it says. “There was no drug overdose, no poison, no suicide pact,” it continues, apparently referring to speculation on social media this week.
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