SA rugby player relives Pistorius-like accidental shooting of daughter in 2004

Washington, Feb 27 (ANI): Oscar Pistorius' murder case is reminiscent of South African rugby star player, who had killed his teenage daughter after mistaking her for an intruder at his home in 2005.

In a dissonantly similar incident in May 2004, his wife, who heard a car in their driveway in Nelspruit, South Africa, awaked former Springbok rugby player Rudi Visagie, CNN.com reports.

The couple thought a robber was taking off with their daughter's car, and amid heightened fears following their neighbors' killings the week before, he broke a bedroom window and fired at the car, hitting the driver in the neck, but when the car came to a standstill, he ran toward it, noticing that his daughter's room was empty.

Rudi's wife, Fried Visagie said she heard her husband growling, adding she wondered what's happening and then he told her it's Marle, their daughter in the car.

Their daughter, Marle Visagie was in the driver's seat, and in that instant, their lives changed forever.

Rudi said it happened that one shot out of a million went right through the door and penetrated my daughter through the neck, adding she was dead on the site.

Marle was leaving the house about 5 a.m. to drop off a birthday gift to her boyfriend, and she had notified her parents about the plan two weeks prior.

In addition to mourning their daughter the family was worried that the rugby star would be imprisoned, the paper said.

However, a court ruled that the former rugby player had suffered enough over his daughter's death, and opted not to prosecute him, the paper reported.

Visagie, who was a household name and had represented South Africa in a series of international rugby games, said you couldn't take that bullet back

Visagie's case closely mirrors that of Pistorius, who fatally shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day, saying he mistook her for an intruder.

Pistorius, a double amputee who made history as the first Paralympic to compete in the able-bodied Olympics, is out on bail as he awaits trial on a premeditated murder charge, the paper added. (ANI)